《Game Master - Unlocked (Terror Infinity) (Old Version)》


 Alarm...

    Alarm...


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    Looking for someone to Beta, message me if you''re interested


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    Jin opened his eyes his bleary eyes to a room of more than a dozen people. He sat up trying to make sense of it all, blinkingto adjust to the low-light.


    There was a window letting in the pale moonlight. Once his eyes had adjusted he noticed there were two people in military fatigues standing off to the side holding guns.


    Jin sat up and surveyed his surroundings, as the people started to stir, two minutes after a pop-up showed up.


    ¡­¡­..¡­¡­.. ¡­¡­..¡­¡­.. ¡­¡­..¡­¡­.. ¡­¡­..¡­¡­.. ¡­¡­..¡­¡­.. ¡­¡­..¡­¡­.. ¡­¡­..¡­¡­.. ¡­¡­..¡­¡­.. ¡­¡­..¡­¡­.. ¡­¡­..¡­¡­..


    Main Mission: Survive


    Difficulty: Low C 11


    World: Marvel Universe


    Time Limit: One Month


    Side Missions:


    <ol>


    <li>?</li>


    <li>?</li>


    <li>?</li>


    <li>¡­.</li>


    </ol>


    Points: Pending


    ¡­¡­..¡­¡­.. ¡­¡­..¡­¡­.. ¡­¡­..¡­¡­.. ¡­¡­..¡­¡­.. ¡­¡­..¡­¡­.. ¡­¡­..¡­¡­.. ¡­¡­..¡­¡­.. ¡­¡­..¡­¡­.. ¡­¡­..¡­¡­.. ¡­¡­..¡­¡­..


    Everyone lookedconfused and the people holding guns didn¡¯t really help.


    Then they spoke up, ¡°Alright, newbies we¡¯re going to say this once, if you don¡¯t want to die, then pay attention.¡±


    He drew attention to his gun. We knew what he wasn¡¯t saying.


    ¡°The Game Master has brought all of you here, after you answered yes to the Question. None of whom we¡¯ve asked remember what the Question is, so there¡¯s no point in asking. Perhaps if you all survive long enough you¡¯ll find out what it was.¡±


    We all took a moment to digest this, I could tell some people were barely holding themselves from lashing out. These guys might as well have been speaking another language.


    Game Master? Question? Survive? None what they were saying was making any remote sense. The only thing that stopped the (newbies?) was the aura of terror those guns produced. You couldn¡¯t look at a gun and not think of your death, and it wasn''t as if the two looked like they wanted hugs.Their entire body language screamed ''We''d rather shoot you all'', and we didn''t want to risk setting them off.


    The pale moonlight shone through the clouds and lit up the room, and we noted their grim faces, they almost looked dead.


    ¡®What happenedfor them, to make anexpression like that?¡¯


    ¡°If you guys survive until the end you¡¯ll be taken to the Lobby where you can exchange your points for stats, skills, genetic mutations or items, we both have a genetic mutation and this gun you see here. The last settingwe were in was the Movie Jaws, and there were twenty of us at the start. "


    If they shone any brighter Jin might¡¯ve gone blind from the two rays of happiness, though given what they said it was sort of-


    Side Mission: Tutorial for New Players ¨C Now Locked


    What?


    ¡­¡­..¡­¡­.. ¡­¡­..¡­¡­.. ¡­¡­..¡­¡­.. ¡­¡­..¡­¡­.. ¡­¡­..¡­¡­.. ¡­¡­..¡­¡­.. ¡­¡­..¡­¡­.. ¡­¡­..¡­¡­.. ¡­¡­..¡­¡­.. ¡­¡­..¡­¡­..


    Main Mission: Survive or Kill the Escaped Experiment


    Difficulty: Low C 11


    World: Marvel Universe


    Time Limit: One Month


    Side Missions:


    <ol>


    <li>Tutorial for New Players ¨C Now Locked</li>


    <li>?</li>


    <li>?</li>


    <li>?</li>


    <li>¡­.</li>


    </ol>


    Points: Pending


    ¡­¡­..¡­¡­.. ¡­¡­..¡­¡­.. ¡­¡­..¡­¡­.. ¡­¡­..¡­¡­.. ¡­¡­..¡­¡­.. ¡­¡­..¡­¡­.. ¡­¡­..¡­¡­.. ¡­¡­..¡­¡­.. ¡­¡­..¡­¡­.. ¡­¡­..¡­¡­..


    Was this like an RPG? A sick twisted RPG. Then where were the basic weapons and skills one got? Or did we get any at all? By the fact, they were holding AKs meant we could get guns but from where? The Lobby they said but where was that?


    There were more questions than answers, and the two didn¡¯t exactly exude a friendly enough aura where people felt safe in asking them questions. Jin decided it didn¡¯t matter, all he had to do was focus on figuring out where he was and being cautious. People didn''t bring weapons to picnics...except maybe his dad.


    Jin looked behind him noting the large moon illuminating the yard, and realized exactly where they were.


    The giant word was standing in reverse and partially hidden by the large skyscraper in the yard middle of the crescent shape the building they were in took, but there¡¯s no way he didn¡¯t recognize them.


    Oscorp.


    What.


    No way.


    Jin almost denied what he was seeing. Maybe he this was a dream. Maybe he was drinking. Maybe, maybe maybe.


    Were they really in another place?


    It didn''t make much sense for all of this to be an elaborate prank.


    It would be an incredible waste of time and money. Then again people were also incredibly stupid.


    However, if they were really in the Marvel Universe, it would be best to remember what he could. Jin recalled everything he knew about Oscorp and then looked at their mission. His brain connected the dots. And the constellation was not looking pretty.


    Much of what he recalled about this place was pretty bad, at least when Spidey wasn''t around. It was a spawning ground for evil and none of it was remotely normal or weak. Most of the time some bizarre experiment escaped or someone stole some tech and went on a rampage. That was was the mild stuff. He wasn¡¯t going to jinx himself or be stupid enough to be optimistic in such an unfamiliar environment.


    Jin wanted to believe he was just having a bad dream, but his dreams were never this coherent. It was possible he was kidnapped as a trial experiment for beta Virtual Reality testing. Pinching his skin, he knew it was unlikely, no matter how much research people had been doing they wouldn¡¯t be able to get the world in such detail, at least not this early.


    Perhaps this really was an elaborate tv game show? If it was it certainly wasn''t legal, he doubted he would ever accept being on tv.


    He calmed himself down and took note of what was important.


    Game Master, Lobby, Marvel Universe, Points, RPG shop, Side Missions.You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.


    And their Mission; Survive The Escaped Science Experiment. There was so much he wanted to say to that ridiculous statement, that he didn¡¯t know where to begin. You don''t survive Escaped Experiment scenarios by choice, you need plot armour for that. He was no protagonist as far as he knew, though he did have some training, those kinds of characters did tend to have a high survival rate.


    He felt around in his pocket and pulled out a pen and pocket notebook and wrote it all down. He¡¯d rather have it written down then forget something important. Because it looked like he was going to be busy worrying about surviving the next few hours to even think about recalling all this in future was unlikely.


    When Jin looked up the two veterans had left. He had expected it¡­but it was still disappointing. People predictably started to freak out.


    He decided to speak up, albeit reluctantly, they needed to work together to survive this pseudo-horror story.


    Jin: ¡°Okay, has anyone heard of Oscorp?¡±


    They all looked at him like he was nuts. He returned the look. How had they never heard of-


    Jin looked at their attire, most of them in business suits and dresses with the exception of two who wore normal street clothes but they all looked to be in their 20-40s.


    Right, old people.


    He internally sighed and accepted that excuse as flimsy as it was.


    Jin then tried to explain in as much detail as he could remember, which wasn¡¯t much. This turned out to be a good thing as he realized he could improvise and lead them into thinking certain things, and perhaps skip the entire denial and breaking of the group. Knowing how annoying it was when people were in denial Jin played it off like this was the real world which he still half believed was true and he had no idea how we got here, which was true.


    All he knew of was that this was research facility that pioneered in the carious fields of science; biology, and chemistry as the main focus, true.


    He then mentioned there were reports of bio-weaponry and experimentation on humans, and raised the subject that this was what was happening at the moment. They were kidnapped and were being forced to play this game which was basically a way for them to gather data, or it was for some rich guy''s perverse entertainment which probably wasn¡¯t too off the mark.


    Oh.


    Jin realized he might¡¯ve done-goofed. They didn''t look like they believed him, and a few looked a lot more scared now, some slightly more calm none of it was what he had intended.


    Hehadn''t said anything especially out there, so they should''ve believed him.


    Not good with leading groups he tried to think of a way to calm them down when someone asked how he knew this. Jin bluffed and said he watched the news and the fact their company logo was outside the window might be another clue.


    They decided not to believe him, not that it would help as most were civilians and none of them looked to have any combat or any life-and-death training at all.


    Jin who hadn¡¯t seen any visible proof of anything was a paranoid individual and decided it wasn¡¯t worth the risk if they were inside a death experiment. He simply suggested they find a way out of this building or at least find a more secure location. It was a normal office, with scattered papers and some lab equipment. He didn''t really want to be in here if they sent somepseudo Terminator after them.


    None of them seemed that eager to move, for some stupid reason. He then told them they might be caught for tresspassing and the best thing to do was leave quietly and forget all this happened.


    Somehow they accepted it and they decided to leave as fast as possible and get on with their lives.


    Jin strangely enough was used waking up in strange places thanks to his dad''s ''Training'', there was no way this was that, but from the training he had learnt to scan his surroundings and felt something off.


    He couldn''t pinpoint what was making him feel like that, however he did know to trust his instincts. He found a fire axe behind a glass case and thought best to take it with him, he might need a weapon later, ''Best Overkill than Dead''. He covered his fist with his clothes and broke the glass quietly and took the axe with him.


    As he ventured out with everyone, and found the facility quieter than a graveyard, all the lights off with one or two on though they seemed empty. He remembered what the translucent window had said, ¡®Marvel Universe¡¯.


    How would a death game work out here? Would the ''experiment'', as they termed, have bulletproof armour?


    Death games usually had the players at a serious disadvantage, from what he remembered from the books he read.


    Alternatively, if this was real. How did the experimentget loose in the first place? Did some wack-job scientist work late into the night and fall asleep, and accidently hit the release button? He really didn¡¯t want to die because someone hadn¡¯t bought some coffee to keep themselves awake.


    Another thing that Jin still felt should¡¯ve been addressed was the fact they were in the Marvel Universe, was it really? How did they even get here? Were they actually here or was this all an experiment, maybe closer to a VR session then anything. Then he remembered what happened to characters that said these lines in horror movies. They were usually the first to die.


    Jin gazed into the flickering abyss.


    The blinking lights played havoc on my fears.


    He decided it was best not to think this was where the ''blue window'' said they were.


    Using caution he went down the list of villains and concluded he was going to face someone along the lines of Spidey¡¯s Rogue gallery. EIther as a parody and some killer wearing Goblin''s costume might walk down the hallways with an axe and riot gear, or the person might come after them in an actual glider, throwing bombs at them.


    If it was the later then he had no chance of winning since almost all of his villain were already stronger than Spidey who could easily lift thousands of kilograms.


    Jin would take on the Jokerover escaped experiment any day, especially since they could never be beat with a gun or a good RPG to the face. He just kept hoping that if this did become dangerous at least it would be kept to something human. Because the more he thought about it, the more he realized this axe was going to be useless if he faced something like that. He hoped it wasn¡¯t something impervious to bullets like the Rhino.


    Going through the mental list of villains, he felt his heartbeat pump a little faster, he had managed to narrow down who they were going to face, even if the fear was held at bay momentarily. Jin didn¡¯t know whether or not talk or not because if something dangerous truly was out there¡­ he couldn¡¯t stop his hands from shaking at the thought of actually facing someone that powerful. Walking down this moonlight hallway with the shadows covering the floor, scared him more than he wanted to admit he was going to be jumping at his own shadow if he somehow survived this.


    Please benothing, please tell me I''m nothing but a tin-foil nutjob.


    ¡°So, does anyone have a gun, or some sort of weapon?¡±


    Everyone jumped slightly startled by the noise, even if he kept it just barely above silence. No one responded, he just sighed and kept going, ¡°Not even a taser? Ladies? Pepper Spray?"


    They all looked like they wanted to strangle him. Jin felt his heart subside, annoying people was very therapeutic for him buthe didn''t really like the fact none of them had anything resembling a weapon.


    A loud bang echoed throughout the building.


    In the dark silence, it sounded like an explosion. The lack of fire and destruction told us otherwise. Getting fed up one of the businessmen walked forward impatiently his shoes clacking loudly.


    Jin said, "Err, maybe walk a bit quieter?" as he shifted his eyes around and kept a grip on the fire axe.


    The impatient businessman said, "I don¡¯t have time for this I have a meeting tomorrow. I need to find the exit and leave this place before we get arrested and thrown in jail. Honestly would¡¯ve written all of this off as a bad dream if it wasn¡¯t for the smell."


    "Smell?"


    Business said annoyed, "Yes, it smells like when snakes shed their skin. If I didn¡¯t know any better, I would say a large snake had escaped-"


    At that point Jin stopped listening. There was perhaps one villain that stood out as one of the many Dr. Jekyll and Hyde copy cats of the series. The Lizard. A seven-foot-tall humanoid reptile that was deadly as it was intelligent depending on what version we were looking at. The fact this was Oscorp and the fact the mission parameter had used to term ¡®escaped experiment¡¯ it was probably safe to say it was probably Curt Conner who was experimenting on this probably late into the night and because he had either been sleep deprieved or was drunkand had done the stupid thing by testing it on himself.


    He was usually taken down by the cold or our friendly neighborhood hero cured him with an antidote, before he turned again and killed a bunch of people...again. However, none of them would survive against that monster. Everything exceeded normal human strength, the only weakness he had was the cold.This wasn''t the land of Maple Syrup and Polar Bears, unfortunately.


    He knew that if he tried to get the peopleto listen to him they wouldn''t believe him and would stop taking his opinions seriously when he didn''t believe it himself, the only proof he had supporting him was that floating window and that could be replicated by a floating mirror. Even ifJin explained who they were likely to face and given the context it was likely it was The Lizard.


    Then again he was just operating under the assumption that this was real and he would rather be paranoid and cautious than risk actually facing all this without preparing himself beforehand. He honestly wanted to be wrong, the text window, those two men, and the fact he had no memory of being kidnapped or any actual smell of chemicals being used on him made it hard to think otherwise. He also hadn¡¯t found any cameras that showed they were being spied on. His extensive knowledge of hidden cameras, he bitterly remembered, all learned from his military-esque dad.


    Jin suddenly stopped when noticed something on the side of the wall.


    "What wrong?" Jin heard someone whisper.


    "Try not to freak out,"Jin played it out, "but I think we have a large reptile on the loose."


    Unsurpringly they looked on in disbelief.


    "Something the size of a Komodo Dragon judging by the claw marks, they were most likely using them for experiments."


    Showing them the marks had them believe me.


    For an instant.


    They muttered something about kids with overactive imaginations trying to bely the fact that a large animal might crawl out of the darknessand devour them.


    They walked away and Jin sighed and went to follow when he noticed the light in one of the labs was on. He called out to them about this but they continued walking wanting to get out as quickly as possible. Jin decided there was no more wasting time and opened the door, it was curious to why this room had its light on when the rest of the building had the lights closed.


    With the sudden silence, he heard the sounds of a clock break it, and found it to his right reading 4:57. Almost an hour till daylight which by then all the office workers would be in the building and they would have to explain themselves or be trying to survive the lizard alongside them. It wasn¡¯t like he knew exactly how strong the lizard was this time around, he knew for certain it would outclass them, but by how much was the variable in this equation.

 Alarm... (2)

    I tried to find some information to at least understand something about this company. I looked through the papers but they might as well have been gibberish. The papers had barely made any sense and he had gone through some extensive schooling under his dad.


    Jin managed to understand that they were research papers for bio-weaponry, something about plants.


    A few talked about animals, one talked about how the Spiders had been a success and the mammal family was coming along nicely.


    It had seemed hehad hit the jackpot, if only he could understand what the more complex stuff meant.


    There was a scream from down the hall.


    I didn¡¯t know which way it came from so I ran in the most likely direction it could be coming from, the group that wanted out from this building.


    The screaming increased in pitch, others joined her.


    I pounded down the hallway and suddenly slipped on something liquid slid to a stop.


    I knew it was probably what I didn¡¯t want it to be.


    Yet I still held up the liquid in the moonlight and found it shining red.


    Another scream from further down the hall and then silence.


    I¡¯ve seen enough horror movies to know where this was going.


    Before I could even think to move gunfire erupted inside the room.


    I took cover. A number of explosions went off and a hiss that I had heard anacondas make in zoos. I could¡¯ve imagined it but it sounded like it had been pain.


    All I knew was I had to find somewhere else to hide. There was no way I was going to be killing that monster. I didn''t have a weapon strong enough. I took shelter in one of the room that had a keep out sign and bunch of other warm colours. I burst in and shut the door behind me. I found a few tables and shoved them towards the door. I couldn¡¯t see very well since the room didn¡¯t have any windows but from the faint light coming from a computer monitor left on I managed to navigate the maze of workshops.


    There wasn¡¯t much here, that looked to be a light switch but I found a few lamps that I turned on.


    The last of the lamps turned on I looked around the room.


    I realized it wasn¡¯t a where the people with desk jobs worked like I originally assumed.


    It was the weapons testing facility!


    Like a kid in a candy shop, I whoopedwith glee, professionally of course.


    He noted the strange rooms in the back, most without ceilings as there was a metal catwalk above.Some had glass walls with one of thethem concrete and a small table for objects to be destroyed on.


    There were oddly shaped guns that looked like a few sci fi weapons I had been familiar with. A few were in a slick black like most modern weapons looked. There to my left, there was a wall of glass. Behind the glass was a target and a table with an assortment of guns on it. They looked to be past the will-explode-on-contact and in the safe-for-testing phase.


    It was probably dangerous picking those up with anyone supervising but with Mister Tall, Green and likely to rip my spleen out, out there prowling the grounds. I needed all the advantages I could get. Even if it had been killed I didn¡¯t really trust the people in army fatigues.


    Better safe than dead.


    It wasn¡¯t like I hadn¡¯t ever fired a gun before butI wasn''t exactly a master either, I was only an expert with handguns.


    I messed around with each one trying to see which one would be appropriate. It was likely this entire area was sound proof, other wise that would''ve been quite the design flaw because he found it hard to believe that a facility this advanced would forget something like that. It would disturb the others working here.Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit.


    To make sure I checked the nearbymanuals for do''s and don''ts and found Iwas right. Though it told meto wear the specialized earplugs to avoid hearing loss. There were some really stupid don''ts, like don''t point an armed explosive launcherat someone else, don''t stick your finger in a loaded gun or his favourite and the one I didn''t understand the most was don''t lick them.


    The last one made mealmost lose my faith in humanity. It amazed me sometimes when even inthis facility where these guns were accessable by the most gifted of people, there were still people who pulled stupid stunts like this.


    I decided to go with the cluster grenade launcher and the one that shot immobilizing glue-like substances. I dubbed it the Immobilizer 3000.


    It was better to go for something that could get it in one blow. The purpose of the other one was to slow it down or narrow the environment down enough that I could hit it accurately with the cluster grenade launcher (CGL).


    Jin had suspected everything in the room to be incredible tough so he had tested it out. Even the glass walls were niegh indestructible. It came to him as a surprise when on a whim, he fired on the table the guns were on and its didn¡¯t even have a scratch.


    He didn¡¯t what store sold this type of furniture but he wondered if they also made chairs. He had always wanted an indestructible workshop. Tinkering with explosives and mechanical devices, and every time they were destroyed when something went off.


    Even if he worked from a distance it was incredible irritating finding a new table and rebuilding the robot arms that helped him work. He had almost wanted to take it with him. But sighed when he remembered he still had a job to do.


    Armed with my Immobilizer and CGL I sat in one of the chairs and thought about what I should do now. It was unlikely that I would receive any help.


    With everyone (most likely) dead, I kind of felt guilty. I hadn¡¯t even tried to tell them, or help them. If I had would they have¡­


    I shook my head. It was better to stay focused I would worry about all that when I was safe.


    I tried to see the situation objectively. Escaped Human-Lizard Hybrid with enhanced physicality inside the Oscorp¡¯s research facility.


    I then remembered who was the head of the company. Osborn. What would he do? Actually, the better question would be what wouldn¡¯t he do. It was likely he would try to capture the Lizard and then try to erase me, and the other two if they survived. How he would do it, would be assassination or¡­wait, he might just pin all the murders on me!


    It¡¯s not that unlikely that he wouldn¡¯t considering that he used his own son in some of his plans.


    The mission hadtold us we had a month, and with our weaponry and physicality I doubted we would be able to defeat it here. It was best to think long term for the just-in-cases.


    I had to escape before morning, or before one of them tripped the alarms. How those hadn¡¯t gone off yet, I didn¡¯t know.


    No, it was more unlikely those hadn¡¯t gone off. Maybe they had¡­Silent Alarms.


    A place as high tech as this would definitely have alarms. The¡­uh, I wasn¡¯t sure what to call the thing that brought us here. The soldiers had called it. I took out my notepad, what had they called it-Oh, right. The Game Master.


    It wanted us to either kill the Lizard or Survive for one month. I highly doubted my ability in killing that death machine. I¡¯d rather fight a real alligator barehanded.


    Then this universe would be the Game World itself? It sounded so¡­wrong. I didn¡¯t think we were restricted to the Facility, but I wondered if we were really allowed to leave.


    There was no information on whether or not -


    My thoughts braked and I said aloud, ¡°System, Status, Info, Information.¡±


    At Information, a translucent window popped up.


    The same one that had in the beginning.


    ¡­¡­..¡­¡­.. ¡­¡­..¡­¡­.. ¡­¡­..¡­¡­.. ¡­¡­..¡­¡­.. ¡­¡­..¡­¡­.. ¡­¡­..¡­¡­.. ¡­¡­..¡­¡­.. ¡­¡­..¡­¡­.. ¡­¡­..¡­¡­.. ¡­¡­..¡­¡­..


    Main Mission: Survive or Kill the Escaped Experiment


    Difficulty: Low C 11


    World: Marvel Universe


    Time Limit: One Month


    Side Missions:


    <ol>


    <li>Tutorial for New Players ¨C Now Locked</li>


    <li>?</li>


    <li>?</li>


    <li>?</li>


    <li>¡­.</li>


    </ol>


    Points: Pending


    ¡­¡­..¡­¡­.. ¡­¡­..¡­¡­.. ¡­¡­..¡­¡­.. ¡­¡­..¡­¡­.. ¡­¡­..¡­¡­.. ¡­¡­..¡­¡­.. ¡­¡­..¡­¡­.. ¡­¡­..¡­¡­.. ¡­¡­..¡­¡­.. ¡­¡­..¡­¡­..


    This didn¡¯t tell me anything I didn¡¯t already know.


    Time Limit. One month.


    I realized I would have to kill the Lizard. Or at the very least stop him.


    If he escaped people would die, and I wasn¡¯t sure if ol¡¯ Web and Mask had even set up shop yet. Each variation of the comics had him start at different times, and sometimes he didn¡¯t.


    I hoped this was one of those where he did-


    Wait, if I met him early on I could save his Uncle!


    But then he might not go on to save others¡­


    Naw, he wasn¡¯t that kind of guy. All I had to do was convince him, it wasn¡¯t like anyone knew about his powers in the first place, so going through it alone, he thought the best thing for it to do, was get rich and famous¡­


    Okay, focus.


    I¡¯m just going to leave all that for when-if-I survive.


    I decided to think about escape for now, and worry about trapping Mr. Green later.


    I didn¡¯t know which way I had to go to get out of here. This place was gigantic, there wasn¡¯t exactly a map of the place laying around.


    I didn¡¯t want to, but I considered using the computer, if Osborn hadn¡¯t noticed then he would now. He would either:


    <ol>


    <li>Tip off the cops-Unlikely</li>


    <li>Watch- He''d probably crack out some popcorn</li>


    <li>Ring up his own private militia, sip some wine and then watch his soldiers beat me up and die trying to get Mr. Green. Then proceed to massproduce it and sellit for millions, and take over the world...</li>


    </ol>


    None of them I liked. If he knew where I was then he would definitely try to find how I got in here and I doubted he would use the Good Cop, Bad Cop Interrogation technique.


    I doubted he would believe me if I said I just woke up here.

 Alarm... (3)

    <u>Alarm¡­(3)</u>


    Jin crawled through the vents trying to find the one where the veterans were fighting with the lizard. The problem being he had no map so he was essentially blind and crawling through with no idea where he was he trying to keep his voice quiet but it wasn¡¯t exactly easy assignments his crawling echoed against the small metal corridor. Unfortunately, he doubted the lizard could get in here so he felt he was mostly safe.


    He landed in empty room he felt might¡¯ve been a likely guest considering the smell. He draped an elbow over his nose trying to block a the intense smoke and metallic likes smell. He found one of the veterans or part of him lying on the floor. He felt like he should¡¯ve said something but he couldn¡¯t think of anything and try to look force the AK-47. He found it under one of the tables it was pretty banged up but it looked to be in working condition.


    He decided to take their gun with him. Checking the magazine, he found it was still nearly topped up.


    With a practiced motion, he loaded it and pushed the safety off with the absence of most of the civilians and considering what he was up against he felt no one would mind but the dude in green.


    He followed the trail of destruction into one of the office rooms which looked severely less¡­ like a hurricane had waltzed through. He looked around and strained his hearing trying to pick up something.


    Once he heard nothing he stepped forward then stopped. Thesilence felt oppressive and ominous.


    He honestly didn¡¯t feel like walking through the maze of cubicles. It felt reminiscent of almost every monster movie and he felt like the guy that was marked by the death flag if he kept going.


    To feel like he wasn¡¯t walking into a clich¨¦. He decided to trust his paranoia and he backtracked. He found the vents and went through them wrsetinling his guns inside. He manahed to crawl up somehow.


    Gasping he got an overhead view. There. By the artificial plant, his tail sticking out under one of the tables just infront of where he would''ve been hadn''t he changed his mind. If he had kept going¡­


    If you ever got out of this he was going to donate to the Monster Movie Foundation. It saved lives. Well, more like life.


    He looked around, wondering where the veteran was considering the other one was, uhm, in pieces and since Mr. Green hadn''t nommed on him, he assumed he was alive and he was they were still at it. Judging by how the Lizard was now trying to ¡°camp¡± like a rookie Call of Duty Player.


    It seemed dead but by the glowing yellow cat eyes, he knew better.


    Jin couldn¡¯t really see any way of attacking him without being detected immediately sat there trying to plan out his next course of action.


    What did he know about his enemy?


    He was susceptible to cold and he was a predator. Could he lure him away somehow?


    Hmm, it wasn¡¯t like-


    Jin remembered the dead bodies. Perhaps he could use the smell and lure the lizard into one of the rooms...


    Was this really okay though?


    He would be disecreting the dead. He felt like he should do everything in his power to stay alive, yetit still felt wrong.


    Conflicted he tried to reason with his conscience when he noticed movement out of the corner of his eye and found the veteran silently walking along the side of the cubicle wall. Clearly he hadn¡¯t watched any monster movies, at the rate he was going he was going ciao chow.


    Jin hesitated.


    He felt like there was a number of things that could mess up. Just by helping him he could accidently hit the Veteran instead and then he would certainly be food, but if he didn¡¯t. He wasn¡¯t sure whether the veteran knew the lizard was there or he was truly unaware either. All he had was his gun, if he shouted a warning the Lizard could catch him by surprise while he was distracted by his warning.


    Other than the basics, there was an underlying feeling that he couldn''t trust him. He had abandoned them after all, and magically showed up when the Lizard had been murdering everyone.Unauthorized usage: this narrative is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings.


    ''Had he been using them as bait?'' Was what he came up with. But that was an assumption based on barely discernable evidence.


    Jin felt his mistakes already cost the lives of others, it was irrational but his heart gnawed at him. And that guilt made him hesitate, even if he had used them as bait he was still the only other person he could rely on right now. With his mind made up Jin got in position to help him out. The most opportune moment was just a second before lizard saw the old guy.


    Jinwas annoyed that he had to keep calling him veteran, he really should''ve asked for his name. At least his eulogy would be simple if he survived.


    Jin fingers crushed the leather grip, he tried to get his breathing under control. He envisioned a target much like the one¡¯s he was used to seeing on the shooting range.


    ¡®Think of it like training, think of it like training, just have to get bullseye and I¡¯m home free.¡¯


    Veteran crouched at the edge of the intersection of cubicles once he turned around the corner the lizard would attack defined by how it¡¯s muscles rippled power.


    Jin had noted how undamaged it''s scales seemed. He focused and found his scales had scortch marks on it. There were no signs of any bullet wounds.


    There was no way his AK-47 would be useful here. He highly doubted the Veteran couldn''t shoot, he wielded the gun like a pro,either that or the Lizard evaded all of them, or his scales tanked most of the bullets. Whatever the case they could figure it out when it was immoblized. Thebest case it would cause a distraction for the grenades.


    This was the moment.


    Jin''s sharply exhaled, and moved to open the vent, the screw squeked a bit too loudly and rang against the metal. That drew the lizard''s attention. It looked around and then focused its eyes on Jin.


    ''ah, shi-''


    In a blur of green in burst through the cubicles and attacked the veteran and threwsomething at Jin.


    Jin could barely react as what he assumed was a table fly at them at 70 KM an hour.


    Jin managed to slide forward as the table smashed the vents in half, and if he had been a second late, his legs would¡¯ve joined it.


    He seemed to be zigzagging through the cubicles and the Veteran lobbed a grenade in its direction.


    Or at least I thought it was until a loud flash followed by bang burst through my head. Incredibly disoriented Jin had a breif moment to admire the Old guy''s tactic, it was clear the Lizard had been incredibly enhanced, so it made sense his senses would be inluded in that package. The Lizard seemed to be dazed, with its incredible senses Jin felt certain it would hold for a few minutes. Then the behomoth staggered and crashed through a wall.


    The Old Guy was quick to follow. He pumped his legs and was gone before Jin could blink.


    Right, enhancements.


    Jin tried not to complain at the unfairness of it all. When would he get superpowers? He could really use those Spark Gloves right about now. Maybe a Sensu bean or two.


    He looked behind him and trued kicking at the table, trying his best to dislodge it to no avail, simply going with the easier route and kept crawling through the vents.


    He heard more gunfire and sped up, if the Veteran wasn¡¯t here to draw its attention he would be dead. He doubted he could ever truly face it in battle.


    There was a loud explosion, the heat rushing up the vents. Moving quickly Jin turned to the nearest opening, kicked it open. His guns got stuck, he didn''t hesitate and left them behind. Not a moment to soon, judging by the flames. There was rush of weightlessness as he realized how high up he was before the ground rushed up in greeting, he responded with his feet. He landed and sprained his ankle.


    Great, lost mobility, environmental advantage and weaponry all in one move.


    He looked up to where the vents where located and knew he wouldn¡¯t be able to reach it without a sticking to the walls. He decided it was better to go back and get the other guns.


    He walked down the corridor and heard a clacking. He looked behind him and saw glowing yellow cat eyes peer at him from the darkness.


    He didn''t think, he ran.


    There was simply no way he was going to survive.


    He didn''t even question where the old guy went.


    He simply ran, the pain in his ankle non-existant.


    He somehow made it the weapon testing facility door, before he felt a searing pain across his back.


    Acting on instinct he pulled his pen from his pocket whirled around and stabbed it.


    In the eye.


    He had one thought before he ran inside. The Pen was indeed mightier than the sword.


    Jin locked the door. It was a pretty sturdy but he didn¡¯t really want to test it against the lizard. He quickly barricaded the door with all the desks and shoved CPUs and moniters there.


    He then limped to one of the chairs and sat down. The lizard had saw how injured he was and had been toying with him. Now that he was seated and able to breathe, he thought on why the Lizard hadn''t killed him immediately. could it have been injured? There was a strange smell and he was pretty sure the sound of its gait had been off, and much slower.


    He limped inside and looked though the weaponry. None of it was going to help. All of it used the normal standard gunpowder and bullets. Practically useless against its hide.


    Jin looked around he found a beaker with green liquid in it, near some research papers, some torn others scattered on the floor. He wasn¡¯t a geneticist but from what he could gather this was one of the prototypes for the lizard DNA modifications.


    A translucent window popped up again.


    **********************************


    You Found Lizard Mutation Vial!


    Effects:


    <ul>


    <li>increased senses </li>


    <li>night vision </li>


    <li>thermal imaging </li>


    <li>slight increase in super strength and agility</li>


    <li>increase in healing minor wounds</li>


    <li>retractable scales and claws</li>


    <li>hungrier for small mammals</li>


    </ul>


    Chance of success: 60%


    Information: Mutations obtained during Missions or Storyline Missions have chance of failure and there sometimes have unknown side effects if one already has a mutation. However they skip a large part of the Proficiency Stat completely if successful.


    **********************************


    By the time Jin finished reading the vial was already empty.

 Alarm... (4)

    <u>Alarm...(4)</u>


    The glass dropped from his hand and shattered. The broken remains pierced his skin, letting his lifeblood seep out. But he could barely pay it any attention as his body suddenly clenched.


    All his muscles contracted.


    Then theyburned.


    Jin screamed.


    When he woke up he was lying in a pool of some something black, the moonlight barely made it here.


    He twitched and almost cried from the pain.


    He groaned and managed to get into a sitting position. He ignored the pain. It was the only way he could think.


    He needed¡­


    What did he need.


    It was important.


    The buzzing in his ear wasn''t helping him think, in facthe was getting a migraine from it.


    The dizziness and nausea made him want to lay back down.


    He had no reason to say no.


    Heslumped on to the floor, his face felt cool against it.


    Why did he want to get back up?


    The floor was so nice and cold¡­


    The moon shone down on him as the clouds clearedup.


    He watched red liquid surrounding him spread out and wondered where it was coming from.


    He knew he should stop it, but he couldn¡¯t recall how.


    It was frustrating, he couldn¡¯t remember what he had been trying to do either.


    Why was it frustrating? Didn¡¯t he have time?


    Ah, right, that¡¯s what it was!


    He was bleeding out!


    ...


    He realized he probably shouldn''t sound so happy about that.


    He got up, trying to find something to staunch his wounds.


    His shoes dyed in red, marked the floor with his red foot prints.


    A bit of shuffling around, looking through the cupboards. He found more glass vials, and some random machinary that looked like a cross between a photocopier and a photon cannon. It was hard to make out in the dark.


    It took him a while but he found a box with a red plus on it.


    Looking promising, he took it with him. No one would mind.


    With a practised motion he let memory take over.


    He cleaned out his wounds and bandaged them. There was a procedure and more to this but he couldn¡¯t remember what it was.


    Once done he laid back down and went to sleep.


    Barely any time passed before he woke up suddenly.


    A sharp pain flitted through his head.


    He remembered what happened.


    What was that?! Didn¡¯t it say increased healing?


    Oh, man he got ripped off. It probably meant minor wounds as in paper cuts. His back hurt like it was some portal to the nether realms that the demons were trying to rip open and escape.


    Augh, he was such an idiot. He should¡¯ve taken care of his wounds first before taking the vial. He had thought the minor healing would heal them, but he hadn¡¯t expected the crazy intense pain it or that Minor healing, was really minor.


    He had only himself to blame, naturally he shifted the blame to the Lizard to make himself feel better. It wasn''t entirely wrong.


    Then he remembered he was still stuck in here. He needed to either cure the Lizard or kill him.


    Jin honestly wasn¡¯t sure.


    On one hand, killing him might be his best bet, as he was by no means a geneticist. And leaving him alive meant Osborn capturing the Doctor. In the hands of Osborn that was pretty much handing him the world on a silver platter.


    He would weaponize it then sell it.


    The lizard not the world, that would cause him to lose profit.Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.


    This wasn¡¯t Star Wars.


    Though a Death Star would be cool...


    He moved away from, darkness and headed toward the lamps that were still on from the last time he had been here.


    He had been looking through all the papers trying to gather some information the last time he was here.


    He could try and cure him, but that would mean finding Peter Parker or aka Spidey,and in a city with more than 20 million, he might aswell let his blood drainoutnow.


    Its not like he could dress up as Spidey and confront him when he came looking...


    Well, he couldn''t sewif his life depended ongetting his wounds stitched.


    Maybe Spidey suits were sold at Wal Mart...


    Jin felt like an idiot for not thinking of this immediately.


    He plugged the ¡®burrowed¡¯ USB back in the CPU and booted it up. This time he took more of the files and everything there was on the Lizard.


    He wasn''t even sure he would help him, there was also the fact he might not have the equipment necessary. He was also probably in high school.


    He himself wasn''t in high school, but he wasn''t sure if he had become Spidey yet. He didn''t really want to involve a civilian.


    Then again if he was smart about this...


    Finding Peter might not be that hard, consideringhe just had to look up his last name in the phone book and call their house pretending to be a teacher or something.


    If that didn''t work walk into every high school and look through their directory. With his newfound powers, it would be easy as a piece of cake. Piece of pie-cake?


    The problem was the lizard,where would he keep him? There were some containment vehicles that were built to tank missiles both in and out. They would be tracked he needed to put him somewhere...


    The Zoo.


    It was perfect.


    Alright, perhaps his plan was foolproof, and maybe he wasn''t thinking one hundred percent through, but he would rather not kill someone who had no control over his actions. If he had been, he would''ve justjabbed another pen in the other eye, and made him drink the ink until he drowned. He had killedover a dozen people.


    But since he had probably hadn''t expected that and wasn''t that kind of person (probably), he would try and cure him. Plus,his fanboy side wanted to fight Spidey. Maybe pretend he was a villain, destroy part of a school, do some banter, then ask for his help.


    That''s how every character in a comic did it. It''s a tried and tested method.


    Jin took everything involving the lizard even the paper lying around,and stuffed it into a pack a worker had forgotten. There was around $200 in there along with some gum, a few breathe mints, some tic tac and a tooth brush. Had the guy been traumatized by the Tooth Fairy as a kid or was he just not a morning person?


    Once done, he took the best weapons the place had to offer, the flashbangs, and some earplugs. He knew he would have to drop them as soon as he left Oscorp, there was no way they didn¡¯t have trackers.


    He did intend to bring this entire facility down.


    No. Of course not that would be silly.


    It certainly wasn¡¯t because he was feeling vindictive against the people building weapons in almost every branch of science. Or the fact a giant green scaly thing hadhad been terrorizing himsince the moment he arrived.


    He just thought Osborn¡¯s face would look funny when he saw all this.


    The first thing he needed to destroy the memory banks, and the electrical grid at the very least if he wasn¡¯t bringing this place down. He didn''t want to leave behind any evidence ofDoc Conner''s Work.


    At the very least it would be a good distraction. An enraged enemy was easier to deal with than a calm one. At least in Jin¡¯s experience.


    I checked everything I had,let¡¯s see I have C4, a few flashbangs, modified grenades, and a one of a kind limited edition handgun loaded. My arms, and legs are somehow still attached, somehow


    Satisfied I walked toward the vents weaving around the puddle of blood.


    It looks like a butterfly from this angle.


    The tables piled up on top of each other to keep the lizard out.


    Using my enhanced senses Itried to listen and find out where the Lizard had gone. Nothing, he must¡¯ve moved on.


    Icrouched by the vents and jiggling them open with his mechanical pencil. After a fair amount of cursing, the vent being particularaly stubborn, itpopped open.


    Ilaid it down gently, and started my journey into the unknown.


    The unknown was very smellyfor some reason. I could barely see, but the faint light from an opening at every interval helped. I hadn''t the clue on how to use Night Vision, maybe there was some secret handsign or some verbal incantation? I had no idea


    The smell was getting stronger, making my head hurt. Suddenly, I realized that wasn¡¯t the vents needing to be cleaned out, it was tear gas.


    The only one that could be doing this was...


    I got ready, knowing that I should prep myself I messed around with the grenade a bit.


    Breaking open the nearest vent and I found myself at the end of a gunpoint.


    ¡°Found you¡±, said a familiar voice.


    I glanced up to notice the happy go-lucky Veteran looking at me with eyes of contempt. Did I say happy? My mistake. Not too sure about the lucky though, I thought, how did he know where I would come out? Did he hack the vent''s systems? Or is this an ability?


    ¡°Get up¡±, he ordered.


    ¡°You could stand to be nicer,¡± I said cheekily.


    ¡°I could also be standing over your dead body,¡± he stated.


    What side of the bed did he wake up on?


    ¡°Shutting up now.¡±


    The veteran poked me in the backside with the gun and ordered me to go forward. I didn¡¯t resist and let him led me to one of the rooms.


    I wasn¡¯t going to wait on whatever he was about to do and I turned just enough to let me see him raise the butt of his rifle looking to knock me out.


    I moved before I could think.


    I ducked and kicked his legs to which he jumped. Moving at speeds I didn¡¯t know I possessed I punched him while he was in the air destroying his gun effectively stopping the only ways could instantly kill me. In a, cross guard he slid back, his eyes reappraising.


    It seems he wasn¡¯t going to underestimate me anymore. I was going to have to pull something crazy, I pulled out my flashbang.


    I wasn''t sure if he had expected it because he continued forward, surprising me.


    I threw the flash bang at my feet, and dived for the vents.


    Plugging my ears with the earplugs muffled much of the noise.


    Didn¡¯t stop the world from shaking. Even disoriented I could feel the cold metal of the gun pressed against my temple.


    ¡°Checkmate,¡± the voice muffled. Or shouted, his ears and head were still ringing.


    I turned and held up the grenade in one hand.


    In the other the pin.


    His eyes widened and he spun around. He didn¡¯t waste time asking questions and jumped away from the vents dropping his gun.


    I might¡¯ve heard him curse but my head was still ringing.


    If he had stopped to think maybe he would¡¯ve questioned why I would do something so suicidal.


    I hadn¡¯t thought I would be doing something like this, but I had messed around with the grenade, effectively prolonging the timer with some tape.


    I throw it into the hallway where I had seen him go. I grabbed his handgun and continued to make way to the where they kept their servers.


    Athewindows shattered and an instantlater there was a loud bang.


    I needed to destroy everything, those servers had security footage and the blueprint for making your very own bio-weapons. Perhaps it wasn¡¯t the best plan, but it would delay them, at the very best.


    All he had to do was either kill the Lizard or cure him.


    The cure was unlikely, but it couldn¡¯t hurt to try.


    If it came down to it¡­


    He looked back as he pondered why the Veteran had gone after him. Had he found out about the Lizard Mutation? No he was about to knock him out. Then perhaps bait?


    There were dead bodies, in the other room for that.


    He just couldn¡¯t figure it out. He focused on what was important, the Veteran had become a threat.


    Where the heck was the difficulty setting?!


    He was a level one player dammit.

 Alarm... (5)

    <u>Alarm¡­ (5)</u>


    Jin landed on the polished floor stopping to admire the scenery. The blinking lights and the glass-like high-tech machinery. Almost like a scale model city at night if all the buildings were the same height and the city was surrounded by dark river canals.


    He was almost ashamed to set the charges. After he finished he closed the door and made his way to the building over near it. It powered the entire facility, destroying it would also be a good idea though it would probably be a good idea to do it far away. He honestly, had no reason to destroy it other than to delay Osborn as much as possible. If he was going to commit to curing Doctor Conner, he would need time.


    He closed the door to the building and ran down the path that winded around the back of the building. He noticed how fast he was moving and the fact even though there was barely any light here see perfectly fine. He could smell and hear the forest rustling to his left with the scent of pine.


    He could get used to this. He smelled something akin to excrement, and wondered if he had spoken too soon.


    There was a storage area for shipments and made his way inside. There were some 18-wheeler trucks parked side by side. Jin hoped there were keys, he quickly broke the truck¡¯s window and opened the door. After some searching he found what he was looking for. If he was going to bring the lizard, he would need to secure transportation. He highly doubted he could carry the 400-pound lizard on his back without something giving way. Or Lest he wake him and find him a good midnight snack.


    He made his way back outside, he noted the navy coloured sky and wondered why this place hadn¡¯t had so many guards and why the ones he did see were asleep.


    There was one person that was most likely to have done it. He attributed it to the Veteran, but seeing how that would mean that they had hacked into the system in as soon as they arrived and knocked out everybody in the area it made him wonder exactly what someone could buy with their points.


    They did say one could buy powers at the lobby considering how the fact the lizard was real he wasn¡¯t sure about the exact limits of what could be done.


    He made his way back and with the use of enhanced senses managed to quiet his footsteps a great deal more. He also ripped off part of his shirt and tapped it to the soles of his shoes. He was a bit disappointed in himself for thinking of this earlier.


    He ghosted through the hallways and went back to the site of where everyone had¡­ laid down to sleep.


    He strained his hearing as he stood 10 m from the entrance. For the scrap of something and then it went silent immediately after.


    Had it heard him? It didn¡¯t matter, he wasn¡¯t second guess himself.


    Jin widened his eyes without a second thought he ran towards the weapons facility strangely the rhythmic clicking of clause went further and further away Jin was confused and slowed down but his instincts told him he wasn¡¯t out of danger and made his way back.


    Once he was behind the incredibly solid door, he sighed and the tension in his shoulders relaxed. His breathing barely changed and he listened to see if the lizard was coming back.This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.


    The sound of a pin being pulled and the quiet sound of something being thrown. He did need to be a genius to know what to do next.


    He wasn¡¯t going to risk running straight into the center of the room so he ran towards the wall, and bounded off it jumping for the metal catwalk above. His hand latched onto the metal. The sound air escaping a small tunnel filled the room, along with the smoke.


    He should¡¯ve made sure to kill the Veteran.Hedoubted that the guy mistook him for the lizard.


    Double Tap as they say, or at least make sure you verified the dead body. Now he was in a room filled with high tech weaponry with someone who knew how to use them.


    This reminded him of all those games he had played against paid players. The only this could get worse was if the lizard joined in.


    Jin waited a beat.


    Huh.


    The hissing of the gas canister filled the silence.


    He pulled himself up and took a moment to survey his surroundings.


    Clich¨¦s couldn¡¯t be triggered intentionally? He could¡¯ve used the Lizard as a distraction right now. Jin sighed and wondered why nothing could ever be easy.


    Why was the old guy even after him? He wasn¡¯t the one who had trouble switching to a vegetarian diet.


    Ok sure, he tossed a grenade but it was all with the good intentions of injuring and, hopefully, maiming the guy. Maybe not the best way to make friends, but he had never been good at it anyway.


    The silent hissing came from below as the smoke escaped the canister. It blocked his sight of the entire room and the hissing made it hard to focus on someone¡¯s foot steps.


    He made his way over to the weapons or where they were being kept in an open ceiling glass rooms alongside other glass walled rooms. Jin¡¯s eyebrow twitched, did the veteran think he was stupid? He knew that heknew that he knew he had to reach the guns. They were his only hope, and also a trap. The Veteran would¡¯ve rigged the weapons, but the use of his last two flashbangs it should be able to buy him a few seconds if it didn¡¯t disorient the guy.


    Annoyed he withdrew the pin of one the two last flash bangs he had.


    He needed to make this count. He recited the numbers backwards and stopped at two throwing it down, and he covered his eyes and jumped down. It went off, but the ear plugs muffled much of it.


    There was a spray of bullets. Jin felt the searing heat from one of the bullets hitting him.He gasped when he hit the ground. He kept himself from groaning in pain. The fire spread through his left side. Jin didn¡¯t know what drugs actions heroes were on when they were hit by bullets because there was no way a normal human being kept moving from the pain of the bullet.


    He couldn¡¯t let him know he had been hurt. He had maybe another second left before this entire fight was decided. Jin was behind the counter. All he had to do was reach on top and grab one of the weapons.


    That¡¯s all he had to do.


    He willed himself into an upright position, gritting his teeth through the pain. Grabbed the grenade bag pulled it to him only managing to drop it beside him as the contents inside the open bag fell out. They clattered to the ground, bounced once and rolled away from him.


    Jin¡¯s eyes widened as he noticed most of them were grenades without pins, he heard something click beside him and noticed wires attached to the pins. Judging by where the wires went, they were probably attached to the other weapons.


    He would¡¯ve admired the simplicity and ingenuity of the plan if he wasn¡¯t about to die. It would¡¯ve worked too if Jin wasn¡¯t lucky and had visited this place beforehand.


    With strength, he didn¡¯t know he possessed he managed to flipped the table on to the other side letting all the guns slide to the side that was covered by the blast zone, he crawled over to the other side and grabbed one of the guns. He aimed and fired in direction of where the crafty bugger was most likely hiding.


    The grenades went off with the table tanking much of the hit. The force of the explosion propelling him along with the table and all of the weapons into the air.


    For an instant, he felt weightless and then smashed into something blacked out. When he came to the he felt sluggish. Almost as if he was underwater, everything dark, and blurry, he could barely feel the rest of him. He brought his green hand up to his face.


    Everything seemed to be in order.


    Wait, green?


    His vision was still murky, so the best he could do was find some cover. His head spiked in pain.


    He turned his head slowly and saw the table on its side behind him, it must¡¯ve stopped by the doorway of this room he was in now located just across the one he was in before the explosion.

 Alarm...(6)

    He was turning into the lizard?


    His handwas mottled green liking much like hand of a Komodo Dragon.


    He shoved himself to his feet. Honestly surprised he hadn''t died from the blast, the table did look and feel like it was made of sturdier material probably because it was in the testing range for weapons but it was still surprising.


    Jin took out his earplugs, his ears ringing lightly. He heard the guy quietly stepping forward probably trying to see if Jin had survived or not.


    Hewas annoyed, why couldn''t he have been stupid like him and not double tapped. Stupid professionals, why do they have to be good at their job. He used his new claw-hand (?) to climb up onto the walls his hand barely making a sound as he perched on the ten foot tall wall, the metal catwalk a foot above him.


    The Veteran stepped forward checking all the corridors. Not even looking up.


    And they said video games were bad for you. He jumped down on top of him and stabbed in the neck killing him. Blood splattered against his clothes.


    It was too fast.


    The blood pooled around his body as it shuddered and after a minute, stopped.


    He stood there staring at it, quiet revulsion feeling him.


    He killed someone.


    Again.


    The smell, hit him and he almost couldn''t believe what he felt.


    He was hungry.


    The shock of the hunger and the gut-wrenching feeling after killing him almost had him throwing up. He managed to keep it in.


    For all of two seconds.


    He sniffed his nose from the overwhelming smell garnered from his heightened sense.


    After he finished he moped the place upanddisposed of the body in a nearby incinerator. He used the flamethrower he had found inone of therooms the key to them in the drawer of the desks after smashing their locks with a fire axe he borrowed, if he met his past self he would stab him for not thinking to check them, andstarted burning everything. Less evidence of him being here the better.


    He wiped his face as he peered out of weapons room, the flames casting a flickering light into the gloom, now he needed to-


    An unnatural roar bounded off the walls.


    Yeah that.


    Wasn''t the lizard supposed to hiss? He had in all his comics, he idly wondered, there seemed to be some similarities and differences from this world and the one he had read about. Stepping into the gloom holding the half filled flamethrower in one hand and theAK he procured from the room in his other.The author''s narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.


    Where was Spider-Man? Was he dead? Again? Or was this the introduction where the Lizard killed a bunch of people and then Spidey heard about it and the story started from there.


    His eye twitched.


    At least there weren''t a bunch of artist names floating around giving credit as they killed each other. That would''ve been annoying.


    He pondered, ''Maybe I should just kill him? Even if he has a family, killing someone who doesn''thave control of themselves would be horrible, but then again once he knows he was the one doing it he wouldn''t be able to live with himself if he''s anything like he is in the comics and if he wasn''t then it he deserves to die. Besides he keeps turning into the scaly thing every other day, its wonder none of the organizations caught him and experimented on him.''


    Then again even if he tried to kill him someone else would pop up and take his place as the lizard and who wouldn''t be as benevolent andthatwas a variable that probably wasn''t best left to chance.


    Of course, he wondered why he should care about any of this. He should just leave this to the superheroes.


    He paused.


    Yeah,that was basically condemning people to die.People would die before someone took care of him, even if they were ''NPCs'' it didn''t stand right with him.


    He smelled that...musky shed skin smell all reptiles had. It was coming from the entrance of the lobby. The shadows had devoured everything leaving Jin in the dark gloom with the pale moonlight shining through from the opening twenty stories up.


    jin quietly stepped around checking his surroundings constantly to see ifhe would be ambushed. There was nothing, not even a breeze.


    It was quiet.


    He heard the whine of something metal moved by the mind. Jin walked towards the revolving doors and found them torn and shattered.


    Jin lowered his gun.


    He swore.


    He had been careless he never assumed thathe would escape so soon. The sky was spilling from a heavy black to anavy sea.


    He had procuredanother truck from one of the delivery venues and left through the drive. He activatedthe remainingcharges.


    Leaving no evidence of his involvment or the fact this was the lizard who had done it especially with most of his notes destroyed, the rest in the usb. This universe was practically known for itsobsession with DNA, cloning and other bio-experiments.


    It was afear that someday he would be looking ata face that was his and he wouldn''t be standing in front of a mirror.


    Ditching and blowing that up as it veered off the bridge and into the river was both satisfying and unnerving. Hehad never been thatacrobatic, but withagilityJin knew henever posessed, drove the car towards the edge of the bridge, openedthe door andjumped onto the side of the bridge, quickly navigating under it and out of view. He then set of the bomb insidewhen it was a foot above the water.


    It was unnerving becausenow thathedidn''t have adrenaline coursing through his veins herealized whatthe formula was doing to him, albeit at a slower rate than the Dr. C.


    It had told him nothing about changing into the lizard.


    He also knew without it, he likely wouldn''t be alive right now.


    There really wasn''t any reason he shouldn''t do this alone, Spidey was probably used to dealing with his rogues and he was also a genius it would probably useful to find him. It wasn''t like he couldn''t ask for help, right?


    Jin couldn''t shake the feeling he was forgetting about something


    ''A large explosion took place at an Oscorp facility in South America today, fortunately the grounds had been cleared due to renuvations. In unrelated news a large animal has been let loose and has slashed a great number of people, so far there have been no casualties.''


    Peter turned off the tv as he processed this. Sure, the events have nothing to do with each other. Any investigator worth their name would make the connection the evidence to support it would be hard to come by after the fiesta he had thrown.


    Then again he was probably expecting to much, newsreporters usually reported partial truths. He was almost relieved when no one showed up after a week in a suit asking him to come with them after threatening his aunt. It wouldn''t do well to let people found out who he was. Like Harry. Or worse his dad. He wanted tograduate, grow old and die before handling that minefield.

 Broken Dreams Realized

    He looked at the massive gates and wondered how he ended up at this point. ''Though,'' he thought, ''it might have something to do with that mafia guy that I meta fewdays ago.''


    Jin guzzled down a mango smoothie in a nameless restaurent, in the middle of nowhere, or at least that''s what he would tell someone if they were looking for direction. When someone in a suit walked up to the counter, sat down to his right and ordered a fruit blend.


    Looking way too well dressed, his black hair slicked back and his sunglasses on his face. Considering this joint wasn''t exactly highest in its class.Jin noticed something off about him but in the end decided he was probably another costumer ignored it and tried to focus on his drink. If it came down to it...thumbing hisknife in disillusion, told himself he was just being paranoid and, yes violence was the answer, always.


    "Please don''t kill him," he said he said in a classy voice to his left, "he''s my secretary and I need someone to do the paperwork. Let me offer to pay the next 10 smoothies."


    Jin brought both of his hands onto the top of the counter. Of course ''Mango Smoothies'' was also a fine answer, and it would take his mind off the fact that someone who sounded way too much like he was used to be in control for this to be a casual conversation and Jin wasn''t at all surprised and had known he was there from the beginning.


    With his luck, and since this was Marvel it wasn''t too off the mark, the guy had all the information he needed on him to drive him into a corner and do exactly what he wanted.


    He probably also had back up, no one would walk in here if they either a) owned the place, b)had snipers surrounding this place c) incriminating blackmail material or d) the guy himself was just that capable.Jin despaired and took solace in his drink. That or he needed to stop watching Action Thrillers.


    "I''ve been in need of something that I can get from any of the four, you can choose."


    "How about five: home?"


    "No idea where it is kid, however, I do have an organization backing me. And whaddya ya'' know I needan errand boy."


    Incredibly direct, but he got the gist. ''Work for me, I help you''. Even if Jinwas being used, at least in turn he could use him. Being offered some information and manpower was extremely beneficial. If he kept his word that is.


    It was a giventhat he was watching for quite a while, he skipped the chit chat and went straight to the point.


    Heglanced out of the corner of his eye, the guy seemed normal... in his pseudo samurai, futuristic armour? This guy''s voice didn''t match with his getup at all! At least he still had two of the three piece suit under the armour, his top black suit discarded for a large open black haori, slicked back hair and sunglasses. He also had a very faint scaracross one of his eyes stopping an inch away from the corner of his lip.


    Logically then, this guy should know something about how he had arrived. He was having trouble deciding whether or not toream the guy for info or just straight up attacking himuntil he answered everything he knew. There was no way he was going to get a free answer.


    Accessing Marvel Database...


    ''Classy Jedi Scarface'' not found.


    Actually he kind of looked like...oh.


    Jin had recognized who he was, it took him a second because of the sunglasses and the slick hair.


    It was official his Luck Rank was Z, you know,for zero.


    The dude slid him a piece of paper with four weird symbols. A weird swirly leaf, a weirdrune, a swirly fruit and a Penguin with a really determined expression.


    He instantly recognized them, if he didn''t he would be stain on nerds everywhere.Naruto, The Familiar of Zero, One Piece and Kenichi History''s Strongest Disciple.


    Still hard to come to terms about the fact he had already adapted to this. So he decided to blame this all on blockbuster films with their fancy CGI.


    He continued,"You won''t recieve any special powers or weaponry and I don''t know when you should arrive so choose carefully."You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.


    The H-E-Double-Hockey-Sticks did he mean he had four options, that narrowed it down to two. There wasn''t anyway he was asking anything else from him, the guy already had Jin in debt, anymore and he would have to learn how to swim.


    "No powers upon arrival or at all?" he questioned to be absolutely sure, "what about the rune the dude got after being summoned?"


    "Nothing, you simply will not recieve it."


    "Because?"


    "For some reason we are almost always summoned away from the ''main story''. "


    "Why?"


    "The Portals don''t exactly let you choose."


    "Portals?"


    "How else did you think you were going to cross dimensions? In a Yellow Submarine?"


    "...What''s wrong with that?"


    "Yellow is a terrible colour."


    "..."


    Jin frowned if he had heard of this before the package this morning he would''ve been unsure of the validity of his statement. He remembered the package that came with it had a watch, now hidden under his sleeve, it backed up most of what he was saying. It also let him keep one of the senses of the prototype Lizard serum, and Jin picked smell since, the strength started to ache after a while, and he didn''t want to turn into a lizard again, and he wasn''t sure about bright lights if he picked sight.


    There really should''ve been a description for it, but it just named what he was able to get and that was it.The paper included with the watch reported on his actions during the Lizard incident, in the hotel room he had ''rented''. It validated the fact he was indeed being watch by an organization at the very least and this seemed to happen very often. He didn''t feel peeved he had been spied on, oh no. It wasn''t the fact he didn''t have single clue as to who sent it and why he got a report card of all things.


    No.


    It was because he got a C- -.


    Which was BS.


    It was a high C++ obviously.


    He had alreadydropped out of school dammit! He could be asdelusional as he wanted, he could gethigher than C!


    His illusions-dreams aside.


    It seemed he was able to take in powers even if it was from other sources. The book/hologram thing explained to him a lot of the things, a basic ''help'' guide if you will.


    He was using this guy as a fact check, even if he wasn''t sure of the integrity of the guy''s words.


    Especially with how he smelled ofashes with faint metallic smell he had yet to recognize.


    He didn''t look like the kind of guy that cooked or smoked either.


    He could''ve also sent the package to him in the first place which was unlikely as it warned Jin about what he understood as ''Dimensional Criminals''. This guy could be one of them, or he could''ve sent the package itself. He was leaning towards the former but kept his mind open for possibilities.


    "Where would I be summoned to exactly?"


    He mimed a nonchalant non-answer.


    Mentally, Jin mimed his death, "Can you tell me anything else?"


    "Negative."


    That wasn''t even an option. Ryuzanpaku was the safest, unless he was summoned in the middle of a fight between masters. Which this guy said shouldn''t happen but it was probably best not to take what he said at face value.


    But even then...it was still a million times better than a fight between two ninjas, mages, orthe monsters from One Piece, because at least the Masters of that place would make it an effort to protect those unrelated to the fight. Unless of course they weren''t around, he''d just have to risk it since they were all equally as bad but at least he could run away from the fight.


    "This isn''t really much a choice."


    "Yes, there is."


    He pondered he was assuming he was going to be thrown into the middle of a conflict, considering what happened here and how he haddealt with a giant reptile and two crazy nutjobs with weapons, it wasn''t too much of a stretch. Really he had been the only one that survived.


    In all honesty he would rather be able to defend himself while traversing dimensions (this had become his life...) KHSD wasn''t going to cut it as it took too long and his philosophy about not killing was really different where he would kill if really needed and to never enjoy it. He didn''t really want to decieve them and didn''t want to learn from one of the lunatics of the other side if they would even take him. By this guy''s count there was a chance he wasn''t going to be summoned.


    It boiled down to this:


    JOIN THE MARINES AND EAT A DEVIL FRUIT.


    No.The water and seastone weakness was a bit much.


    BECOME A MARTIAL ARTIST


    Too Long.


    MASOCHISTIC DOG-


    Not even going to finish that.


    BE A NINJA.


    Walk on walls, chuck fire, spit destruction, and summon giant animals to fight for you...


    It was obvious he was going to pick four. But he had a feeling he was playing straight into the guy''s hand without knowing it. Regardless the guy was giving him an offer on surviving there was no way he believed he would be able to be strong enough to survive and simply make it home by himself especially with how crazy the multiverse is.


    Jin simply pointed at the Konoha symbol. The Classy Jedididn''t make any outward expressions but he felt like he had just lost something.


    "Alright what do I have to do?"


    "Help out Naruto"


    "wh-"


    "I''ll be in touch," and he left as he threw a watch onthe table, "you''re boarding pass."


    Help Naruto?


    How exactly and why?


    And here he in a line among other merchants and travelers looking at the Konoha Gateswondering if paint would dry faster than it would take to get processed.


    He wondered if Naruto had ever heard of a prank book? Actually wait can Naruto even read? Could my job be that easy?