Chapter 2: Homecoming

Chapter 2: Homecoming 
New York City

 Though she was no longer the Queen of Blades, Kerrigan was still looking forward to landfall, and  the bloodletting that would follow. Battles excited her, as the always had, and she could not but to look forward to them. Why was this the case? She did not know the answer to that question, though she could guess it had something to do with the emphasis her childhood "instructors" had put on killing. Would help the assassins motivations if they got a personal thrill out of fulfilling their contract (something she herself got when she decapitated Angus Mengsk and kept his head for a while as a trophy).

 The reports from  her troops in the field in New York were strange to say the least. While the brood in other parts of the world had faced fairly standard, but surprisingly technologically deficient, foes, the Zerg  in certain parts of New York had been fighting something entirely....zerglike. While Blackwatch was there, and in full force too, there were also creatures that very much resembled her own infested Terrans. These creatures were about in as bad a condition, anyway. Covered with pusses, wounds any other organic material, these shambling monstrosities came in as many varieties as her ground forces, though luckily lacking in air varieties (not that they would do much to compete anyway....Sarah had made sure that the skies belonged to her swarm before setting down the ground forces) .


  Fighting there seemed to have devolved into a three-way battle between her swarm, the infected, and Blackwatch- one that none of the factions were winning. The battle there was the worst and most chaotic she had seen since the various battles over Tarsonis. Of all the zones that Kerrigan's forces had invaded, it was New York where she was suffering the most causalities. Going into that zone was almost like asking for death.


So of course she was leaving  for the city immediately to lead her forces from the front. 
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     All around Alex the city burned. The aliens, Blackwatch and his own infected, taking advantage of the chaos to gain new ground, all caused it.  And now he was running, chased by that vile Tychus and his machinery. 


      Though he managed to hold his own against the hillbilly for a while, a few other Blackwatch squads swiftly showed up and put an end to whatever advantage he had gained over Tychus. 


In the end no less then three thermobararic tanks had him cornered behind some storage crates, about to blow him sky-high, when whatever sadistic fate out there sent him a reprieve in a extra-terrestrial way.  Green glowing aliens Tychus called "banelings" breached through a fence and before anyone really had a chance to react, annihilated half of the blackwatch squad. Men screamed and tanks disintegrated before Alex's eyes as thick, acidic slime covered much of the Blackwatch force, burning through their suits and armor like flame and a newspaper.


 Sensing a golden opportunity Alex  then turned his biomass into armor-form, bursting out from behind the shipping crates. Ignoring those already covered in (and gruesomely getting killed by) acid , Alex sped on past towards his main objective, the remaining thermobarbaric tank. With his superhuman speed he didn't even need to stop to  slice men into pieces on the way, and managed to reach the tank before the barrel was able to turn back towards him. He lazily chucked the entire tank into the nearby channel, eager to bring his attention back to the space marine. 




 But the hillbilly was no were to found. Alex turned on his thermal vision, trying to see if he could spot him through the smoke clouds of the other two tanks, but again got nothing. A screech came from behind, and a horde of dog-sized aliens with wings came speeding at him from across the other end of the base.  Aggravated now he was about to turn on the blade form and kick some serious ass , when all the sudden he began to here rock and roll music from the warehouse. Turning, for the first time since his fight with the crusader Dante Alex Mercer felt real fear. 

 The machine was huge, three or four stories at least . It's shape was very similar to a human's, standing on two legs and possessing two arms. What was different from the average man was not just its size. No, that would be the vast array of guns covering the entire thing. And all of them were pointed in his direction. 
 Luckily the machine noticed the Zerg and deeming them a bigger threat, immediately readjusted his sights. The machine readjusted its stance too, and the four 330 mm cannons (Alex remembered what they were from absorbing that scientist)  arched to face the front. Alex was temporarily deafened by the roar of the cannons, and the Zerg didn't even have a chance to shriek as they were obliterated utterly. Zerg guts rained down on the field, as Alex most wisely decided to book it. 

 " Not so fast ya coward!" 


 said a voice  that emerged  out of a loudspeaker from  the machine, immediately alerting Alex just who was in it.  The T800 arm cannons roared to life, blowing up a huge portion of the barracks just as Alex raced over it. 


 And that was the story of how Alex got himself in this vile predicament. The space redneck has been pursuing him ever since, with a single-minded obsession . Anything that got in his way-Zerg, infected, or even the Blackwatch teams he was supposed to be allied with- were blown to pieces. Judging from the laughs and taunts coming from the vehicle, Tychus Findlay enjoyed doing the destruction and chaos, too. 


 Fortunately for Alex, the time for running was nearly at an end. The convict was much to focused on the havoc he was creating to notice where Alex was leading him to; the island of Manhatten. Though Blackwatch forces currently fought there (along with someone else, who was tearing the infected a new one) the island was a infested domain. There, with numbers on his side, he would finally be able to turn this battle around. 
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    With a quick thrust, all six of Kerrigan's bladed wings found their targets. Using her psionics, she pushed off the infected and instead focused on a new foe that ran on four legs. This creature had a doglike snout with teeth like a crocodile. Spikes covered its muscular form, and drool poured down from its snout. 

    The creature gave a ghastly shriek before sprinting at Sarah, who sent a psionic blast at the fiend. The blast caught it head on, blowing the legs of the creature out from under it and causing it to skid painfully against the pavement. It did not get up. 


 Well that was rather anti-climatic, she commented wryly to herself.  

    Behind the legless, charred corpse of the dead creature, came a entire horde of infected of infected. From approximately five blocks away a entire horde of infected emerged from the entrance of a subway, sprinting at full speed towards Kerrigan and her hunter killer bodyguards. Said Hunter-Killers immediately opened fire, while Kerrigan merely cocked her head to the side curiously. 


4 blocks....


The hunter-killers were clearly taking their toll, every spine spearing multiple infected. Yet for every infected taken down two more seemed to take its place...


3 blocks...


Kerrigan still stood still, eyes in a almost dreamlike state as she seemed to be in another world. The infected roars and shrieks of rage gradually increased in volume, until it was like a unholy chorus from hell was playing, and she had a front stage seat to them. 


2 blocks


Suddenly subterranean spines began to protrude from the ground, impaling dozens of infected. From beneath the Earth more spines were sent upwards, tearing through the slender bodies of the infected like a C-10 sniper rifle tears through tanks. The Lurkers lay safe beneath the Earth, firing at will, however even they couldn't stem the tide of the mass of infected. Meanwhile Kerrigan's eyes had begun to glow a faint blue.


1 block...


Kerrigan finally sprang into action, pointing her fingers to the sky above the Infected and caused a giant teal storm arose  amidst  the infected. The effects were immediately felt . The infected howled as blood began to gush out of their mouths, ears, noses and eyes as the storm directly attacked their brain. The infected panicked, desperate to get out of the storm's field, and knocking each other down. This only further hampered their ability to get out of the area of effect, and within moments all but a few of the afflicted succumbed to that darkness. Those lucky enough to escape the field were quickly mowed down by Hydralisks. 


 Kerrigan smirked at the carnage, before becoming horrified with herself. Her previous Queen of Blades persona was the one who enjoyed inflicted such gruesome deaths, and that was not her personality anymore. Or was it?  Though Sarah didn't really believe in a higher power, she prayed to whatever deities may be listening for her old persona, the Queen of Blades, to never regain control again. Not only would it be horrible for what remained of Kerrigan's soul, but it would be terrible for the universe at large.   


      Kerrigan shook off those gloomy thoughts when she noticed that she was being watched . Turning around she was met with the sight of a of man with a trenchcoat watching her with a unreadable expression on his face. 

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   Missiles collided with the ten story apartment complex, blowing a huge hole in the building. Several support columns were hit, causing the destruction to increase tenfold as the midsection of the building collapsed, what few collumns remained unable to take the weight of the upper floors. 


"Boom Baby! Whats a matter partner, can't stand up to the heat? Didn't your alcoholic mama ever teach you that ya shouldn't start what you can't handle?Oh wait, I guess she  would have been a poor teacher, huh? "


       Alex Mercer was not a man to take taunts well, and predictably  he bristled under the insult. He knew he couldn't afford to stop just yet, as the T800 cannons were now positioned on the bank that Alex was standing on. 

"BOOOOOM. "


 Alex, who had just dodged the bombardment at the last moment, leapt towards another building, only for Tychus to blow it up right before his feet landed. The resulting explosion showered Alex with shrapnel , the impact slammed him into the concrete pavement, but not even that could keep the man down. Snarling in anger and fury, Alex slammed his claws into the ground. Meanwhile Tychus laughed 

" And I will strike down thee, with great vengeance and furious anger!"


 Suddenly spikes erupted from the ground beneath the machine's left foot. The spines impaled through the armor, skewering delicate circuitry and support alike. Tychus fumed as his machine was hobbled
" You'll lose all your teeth for that one."


 The T-800 cannons roared to life again, blasting the spot where Alex had just stood. The force of the explosion caused Alex to overstep his landing spot, crashing into a trash can. Tychus chuckled, but once again his face turned to an angry countenance as he realized that infected were crawling up his machine, and he quickly lost his cool...
" No you fucking little vermin, you will not take the Odin away from me!"


 The Odin shook itself, trying in vain to shake the infected off, but the now inoperable leg prohibited it from doing so. A horde of infected, including several massive two story Juggernauts, charged the giant machine from its right. Abandoning his efforts to shake off the infected already on the walker, Tychus turned his 330mm Howitzers on them. The massive guns roared to life, utterly exterminating the infected inside the kill zone, but that was what Alex expected. Infected emerged from their hiding places all around the Odin. From out of the sewers and abandoned buildings the infected flocked to the Odin like ants to a picnic, as Alex rushed into the melee with his blade drawn. 


 The fight was not gone from Tychus Findlay's Odin; far from it. Every now and again the machine roared to life as one of the T-800 cannons blasted apart more infected, but for every twelve killed by a cannon shot, 144 more took its place. Not that Tychus wasn't used to that kind of odds, of course.  On a good day the Zerg came at him with those numbers; on a bad 20 times more launched themselves into the fray. 


    Alex finally reached the wounded leg of the Odin, and smiled. With new-found purpose he began to strike at the support beams. The metal was strong, and of a tougher quality then that of the Blackwatch tanks, but it was nothing the blade couldn't cut. The Odin, being distracted by other affairs, paid no attention to him, so he happily continued chipping away at it. 


Meanwhile Tychus was being overrun by the pure amount of infected. He punched a Juggernaut in the face , only for the infected to  reach his windshield. Though the glass was shatterproof the infected soon covered it completely, obscuring his vision. Tychus's cannons still continued to fire; he was determined to bring as many of these bastards down with him as humanly possible. 


     Alex could tell that things in the cockpit had taken a more panicked turn, and Tycuhs would panic further in a secon-
There!


Alex leapt back at he cut  through the final support. The Odin, unable to support itself on one leg, collapsed as the final cannon rounds went wild. One slammed into a hotel, destroying a couple of fourth story bedrooms. 


    Alex took a moment to admire his handiwork, before closing in on the machine's downed cockpit. While they were already making cracks in it he didn't want the honor of doing that hillbilly in to fall to a generic zombie. No, it would be his right and his ...pleasure to send Tychus to that great big trailer park in the sky....


 He shoved his way to the cockpit as the infected, recognizing who is boss, slowly backed away from the heavily cracked windshield. Zeus's hands turned into his hammerfists, and excitement rose within him at the prospect of pounding Tychus to a pulp first. When Alex was within five feet of the cockpit, it suddenly launched itself straight in the air, taking the last few infected that had not heeded Alex's back off command with it. 


     Naturally they would be in for quite a fall, but that wasn't the only gift Tychus left for the infected.....


Two small missile launched into the air from the husk of the Odin, and Alex isntinctively  knew what it was before they began their  descent . Like a bat out of hell he sped away the bomb, as the world erupted in fire behind him...

 From far off in the distance, someone watched the nuke go off with anticipation...


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    Kerrigan was no stranger to nukes going off around her, and barely batted an eye when two explosions occurred behind her . Neither one worried her; Dominion Tactical nukes only had a blast radius of several blocks, though it was a bit troubling that they could be found here. But that was an issue for another time; now she had a new concern to worry about. 


     Most unnervingly the man in front of her hadn't so much as flinched at the nuclear explosion either. Unlike her, who used to drop nukes for a living, this man seemed to be genuinely unaffected by it, his eyes just barely flinching, despite actually facing the blast. 


 She cocked her head curiously at the man, opening his mind using telepathy and only finding.....hate and a passionate desire for vengeance that was much like her own. Unlike her, who had her target list pretty much narrowed down to one old bastard sitting on a throne he didn't deserve, his was extensive. Inside the man's mind she saw a man in a tribal hoodie named Alex Mercer, the various hordes of infected, the military outfits of Blackwatch and....herself. Now she knew what this man's intentions were. She spoke up


" You are either a very brave or a very foolish man to seek to challenge me. Your powers are impressive but pale before mine, and such a duel would only result in your own destruction. Leave now or prepare to embrace Oblivion." 


 The man's eyes, filled to the brim with hatred, continued to glare at her for a little while longer. Finally he spoke


" Sarah Kerrigan you invaded my planet, killing whoever you pleased. You destroyed much of my home city. And then you sent your little carnival of horrors to kill me? I am sorry, but that ain't gonna fly."


    Sarah, a bit taken back with surprise that this man would know her name, quickly fired back


"A lot better men and women then you, aliens and Terrans alike, have tried to take me down in the past. No one has ever beaten me in a duel. "


 That statement was .....mostly correct. Jim's army beat hers, so that didn't count Nor did her latest duel with Zeratul, with whom she was simply toying with. Not even that latest duel with the wannabe Sith Lord on Mustafar....


"There is a first time for everything." 




 With that the man smashed his fists into the ground, sending shockwaves straight for Kerrigan. Her  Hunter-Killer Hydralisks immediately opened fire, sending dozens upon dozens of spines soaring straight for him . The Queen dodged the shockwaves, and watched with fascination as Heller's arms turned into dual shields, which he used to block most of the projectiles. Those few that got through did not seem to faze him.


 Shields still up, the man charged towards Kerrigan and her Hunter-Killers, absorbing or shrugging off more spines. An impressive feat, considering that a average Hydralisk could spit out around a 100 spines per minute. Hunter-Killers were a step above that.


 When he got in 10 yards his arms morphed again. He then thrust his arms forwards and innumerable strands of biomass sprang forward. They wrapped around the lead Hunter-Killer, simultaneously skewering and engulfing it, before splitting apart to impale everything else around the afflicted Hydralisk. Kerrigan only just fought off the tentacles going after her with a well placed psionic blast; her Hydralisks were not so lucky. 


    Like some sort of black hole they were all pulled in towards the center (first hydralisk) , along with everything else that had been hooked onto the tentacles. The result? A Hydralisk sandwich when the various cars and trucks that had been hooked together smashed into the organic middle. 


  Fuming at the loss of her minions, Kerrigan sent another Psionic blast his way, taking a huge chunk of his midsection  and sending him crashing into the side of a building. Her Telepathy told her that he was not dead, and she was proven right when from out of the cloud of dust came a large rock that headed straight for her. 


 Unfortunately for him, he didn't seem to get the memo that she was blessed with telekinetic abilities.  The stone was sent right back in the man's direction, burying deep into the man's wound and causing him to hiss, more in annoyance then pain. The man, whose Kerrigan's telepathy told him was James Heller, changed his form into a blade that looked much like a Swiss army knife and rushed towards her.


 Kerrigan's wings snapped to life , and three of them snapped forward to stop the knife while the other half went into Heller's chest. The man winced, but then drove his other claw hand into her chest.


 She gasped as the blades drove up into her chest, puncturing her lungs and causing her breathing to get ragged. However such wounds, while mortal to other humans, weren't to the Queen of Blades.  With a blast of Telekinetic energy she sent him flying back, slamming into  the wall of a building with such force that the very foundation shook. 


   Sarah gasped for a few more seconds until her lungs began to regenerate, where her attention focused on the man standing defiant before her. The man turned his left fist into a long whip with a blade on the end, and swung it horizontally. She ducked under it, tossing another Psionic blast  at Heller for good measure. 


 She smiled as he fell; his powers were clearly just recently acquired. Using her psionic speed she rushed into the fray, this time diving all six blades into his gut, twisting them as they dug in.


    Surprisingly the man's face only seemed to register intense effort, and he shifted biomass to the outer-surface of his body, breaking apart the tips of Kerrigan's wings. The Queen hissed and slashed him across the neck with her claws, only for that to rapidly heal as his impressive regeneration kicked in. Another slash failed utterly, as the thick armor completely repelled the claw.


  James Heller laughed before kicking her back. She landed gracefully as Heller charged after her.


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   Alex had managed to escape unscathed from the two nuclear blasts, his nimble feat allowing him to cross the necessary four blocks needed to get out of the blast radius before it went off. The radiation almost certainly would effect him, but he had survived it before and in greater amounts a few months ago. Then instead of dealing with tactical nukes he absorbed a nuclear blast from a full-blown hydrogen bomb, only surviving due to a unfortunate crow.




 Now he was tracking the nuclear arsonist's escape craft. It wasn't hard; the man evidently didn't know how to steer, and his ship  had crashed into the tops of more then a few buildings. Now all he needed to do was follow the debris ....


 Alex heard him before he saw him, the roaring of a chaingun of a unfamiliar make against the backdrop of alien roars and shrieks. Alex eagerly moved in closer as the chaingun and the screams died down. The voice of the hated space hillbilly could be heard as the noise died down, talking to a unknown entity using something in the escape pod


     " ....I'm telling the man is dead Mengsk...No I could not make sure.....Goddammit I dropped two nukes on him, not  even a cockroach like him could survive that."


Alex couldn't resist the opportunity, and so he called out from on top of the rooftop


" If you really thought a tiny tactical nuke could kill me, your even stupider then I thought."


 Tychus immediately opened fire with his chaingun, a hail of bullets sent shredding the area that Alex had just spoke from. Laughing from behind a long discarded tank Alex shouted

"Nothing will protect you from me! Not weapons, not armor, not even your trashed little pet Odin!" 


"Hey freak, catch!" 


    A grenade fell from the sky hardly two feet from Alex , this one engraved with the caption "Have a Nice Day :)" Alex quickly tried to race away, but it was to no avail. A bright white light obscured his eyes, and the loud bang fucked up his hearing. He hastily rearranged him biomass to the outer layers of his skin, and none too soon. Bullets riddled against his form, denting and in some places tearing through his armor outright. Such damage could kill Alex if allowed to continue...


  Though blinded and currently suffering from a deficiency in hearing, Alex's whipfist shot out towards the source of the bullets. His aim was dead on, and the long appendage reached the long still spinning barrel of the chain gun, wrenching it from the space marine's grasp . As his hearing and sight came back he could hear the space marine ranting. 


 "First ya destroy my baby Odin, now you take way my chain gun?  Ah Hell, I am going to enjoy fulfilling this contract. Nice and slow-like. "
  
  A strange *Plunk* could be heard, and the next thing Alex knew he was hit by a small round object that exploded on contact. The Grenade blew a huge hole in his armor, and blasted Alex back. He smashed into a concrete wall, the impact of which would have alone killed any normal man. Fortunately Alex was never a normal man...


 Alex used his unnatural agility to leap back behind the tank, his regeneration rapidly healing him. Tychus, realizing that his opponent now could heal grizzly wounds, cursed


"Damn that old man to hell. He never told me that you could regenerate so fast!" 


 "Old man? What old man-"


Alex's inquiry  was rudely cut off  as Tychus jumped behind the tank, his rifle in hand. 

 Once again the grenade launcher fired, only for Alex's newly formed shield to absorb the blow. The explosion still sent him backwards, and Tychus used the opportunity to open fire, bullets once again riddling Alex's undefended form. 

"I think its time I brought out my secret stash of stimpacks. " 


The term immediately forced Alex into a painful  flashback, this one of the scientist he absorbed  earlier.

"These inbuilt chemical delivery systems dose  Dominion marines with a powerful mix of synthetic adrenaline, endorphins, and a psychotropic aggression enhancer. Marines on stims benefit from greatly increased speed and reflexes, but are subject to long-term side effects including and not limited to insomnia, weight loss, mania/hypomania, seizures, paranoiac hallucinations, internal hemorrhaging, and cerebral deterioration. Nonetheless, both commanders and the marines themselves stand by the use of stims as essential to their continued survival and effectiveness on the battlefield . " 

 The man in black's questioning voice once again filled his ears

"Is there anything specific to Tychus's stimpacks?"

"Yes. In addition to the fore-mentioned chemicals, Tychus's "secret stash" contains a mixture of methamphetamine and rocket fuel. I don't even want to hazard a guess of the long term consequences of such a action, but in the short term?  We are looking at a 75% increase in speed and reaction time. "

"Excellent, have your men work on developing a serum for D-code use." 

 Before Alex had a chance to react, the tell-tale signs of Tychus getting high were heard. 

 Alex swung his whipfist at Tychus, only for the man to dodge it with speed nearly matching his own. Tychus's C-14 rifle roared to life, bullets rapidly shredding into Mercer's body. 


    Alex's morphed his arm into a shield again, only for the space marine to appear at his left moments later. A third shredder grenade impacted his shield, slamming him into the tank. 


  Now infuriated, Alex picked the tank up and threw it at the space marine, only for Tychus to almost effortlessly dodge while still firing that damn gun. 


 Alex launched himself in the air, turning both fists into their large beefed up hammerfist forms, before launching himself straight at Tychus. Predictably he missed, but his objective here was to get closer to Tychus. 


 His form changed again, this time his right hand turned into a blade while the left assumed the musclemass form. 


 Tychus, while still firing, pressed a button which resulted in a bayonet appearing on the underside of the barrel. 


 Alex charged while simultaneously dodging a fourth grenade shot at him.  He made it in close but was unable to dodge  Tychus's thrust. The bayonet entered his chest, spearing his pancreas. 


 Zeus just smiled at him, before wrenching it away . The battle was now a complete close quarters fight. Judging from the look On Tychus's face, it was a battle he knew he could not win. 


 The space marine threw the first punch, his fist soaring towards Alex's face only for the nimble New Yorker to evade the blow. 


 Alex's musclemass socked him in the gut, nearly causing the giant of a  man to bend over , before his blade's uppercut sliced much of the armor in half.


 For a moment Tychus stood their awkwardly, before collapsing slowly collapsing to the ground.


   It was a moment of triumph for Alex, but Alex had never been the type of man to bask in glory while other work needed to be done. He advanced on Tychus, intent on collecting his memories. 


"Other then not killing yer, I got no regrets Mercer. My life has been one of adventure, action and zerg-killin', all the while I never forget where I came from. Yours is just a waste. You spent all your time in a lab, wasting away over some slide where I was living the dream life. You spent all that time trying to get away from that trailer park part of yer that is as ingrained in you as your blade or shield. But to hell with that now, and to hell with you if you think I am going to let you absorb me!" 


   Alex had gotten within 2 meters of Tychus while he was making that speech, all for naught when Tychus pulled no less then 7 grenade pins on his side. Alex cursed as Tychus laughed and taunted him one last time


 " If you could barely beat me, you got no chance against Kerrigan boy-" 


 The explosion cut him off. Fortunately Alex had made it out of the range of the blast, however he was still showered with space marine bits and other debris. Fuming, he walked with new purpose to the escape shuttle, eager to have a "chat" with Tychus's employer. 
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  Meanwhile Kerrigan was still locked in her own battle against Heller, currently parrying one of his blade thrusts with three of her wings. The wings entangled the blade, stopping its movement as the other three wings brutally pierced Heller's chest multiple times.

 Heller growled, before grabbing the first  three wings with his free hands and snapping the tips off. This bothered Kerrigan little; they would regrow soon. 


 Now free Heller swung the blade across Kerrigan's chest, only for her claws to stop it half way. Twisting her hands, she bent his arm backwards, forcing him to the floor. She swung her foot back and then slammed into Heller's face, breaking his nose. 


   Heller swung his free arm at her, a Whipfist which knocked her off him.  Wasting no time, Heller brought his blade across her chest once again- this time slicing through her  carpeice. Kerrigan gasped only briefly before stopping the next blow with a psionic bolt.


 The power, meant to only subdue, did what it was intended; to give her time. When Heller broke free of the bind, he found a fully healed Kerrigan, with a Psionic blast forming on her fingertips. 


 The projectile hit Heller in the chest, sending him backwards as Kerrigan followed up the attack by lifting a couple of cars with her Telekinesis and sending them Heller's way.  Said mutant enlarged his fist into the Hammerfist form , smashing the first car into dust.  The second he dodged completely, however the third caught him in the chest. 


 For a moment it looked like he would be crushed, but only for a moment. 


With a great roar he threw it back at Kerrigan, who easily  dodged it. Heller was not done however, and slammed his fist into the concrete.


A wall of spikes erupted out of the ground at such speeds that Kerrigan was only partially able to get out of the way. Though most of her was out of the path, preventing a fatal blow, her right leg had been impaled multiple times, crippling her.

 No, she thought, this planet will not be my tomb-


 Tendrils wrapped themselves around her, entangling her and preventing her from finishing that thought. The Tendrils swung her into a nearby building, causing her to break several bones in her rib-cage. 


 Before she had any chance to regenerate, Heller was on her. After first separating her wings from her body, he used both hands to smash her face into the concrete. Over and over again he drove her head into the concrete, as Kerrigan, desperate now, probed deep into her near assailant's  mind. 


  Dozens of memories flashed before her eyes in those next few moment-his birth, his enrollment into the Marines, the new Blackwatch base at Randall park- but there was one memory that would prove instrumental in getting out of this predicament. She seized it as her greatest chance of victory .


 James Heller screamed in pain, as he was forced to violently relive the worst moments of his life, that of his last conversations with his family and the aftermath. In his head Heller was being forced to relive  himself telling his family to remain where they are and to stay in the city, destroying their last chance of leaving that doomed place. Such memories were twisted by Kerrigan, so that the bodies of his young child and wife were seen immediately after.  Again and again it played, as Kerrigan used the opportunity to heal herself.


 Strange, she thought to herself, those mutated by the Blacklight virus seem to have a particularly bad reaction to memories.  


    Eyes full to brim with tears of sadness and hate- sadness for what happened to his family, and hate for the bitch who forced him to relive these memories, Heller turned to Kerrigan and shouted

" You fucking bitch! I will rip you into pieces  for that"


 He charged, every step quivering in rage, however this time she was ready. Her wings flexed at the same time as  she mentally  summoned her C-10 rifle from a nearby Hydralisk corpse. 


 As Heller's Hammerfists got in range, her wings sprang into action. This time her target was not the chest, instead it was his arms. Her wings thrust forward, impaling each of the two arms with three spear points. Using the her wing muscles she lifted him into the air, using her psionics to strengthen the wings to withstand the punishment a struggling Heller was inflicting. At the same time her C-10 flew into her hands, and she promptly set it to full auto.




 Just as he began to break out, she opened fire, the rounds designed to annihilate tanks tearing through his body like a kilij through a pig carcass. His body twitched, and the wings strained to prevent Heller's body from being blown off the tips by the impact of the rounds. Each round blew off huge chunks of flesh into his chest,stomach, neck ect. By the time she emptied the entire 20 round clip, there was little left of the man's torso. As a final piece de resistance, Kerrigan used her psionic blast to blast the rest of him off his wings. James Heller hit the ground with a loud thud, where he moved no more.


  Kerrigan was in a moment of inner turmoil, as she realized that the brutality that she just showed was similar to that that her previous Queen of Blades personality had enjoyed so much. If she took control again.....no, that would be almost as bad as losing control of the swarm completely.


 With new purpose, she sped off to Randall Air Force Base, eager to both cure herself and face....whatever destiny awaited her....