Kerrigan vs. Mercer: The final showdown

     As Alex Mercer slowly  walked over to the escape pod he couldn't help but feel anxious as a feeling of foreboding overcame him. It had long been his policy to get revenge on his enemies- no matter the cost- but something told him that this employer, who commanded armies of space marines and entire planet destroying fleets, may just be someone who he couldn't get even with. In fact, unlike any of his previous opponents, this man could pretty much (and had, according to a report on him the scientist had read) destroy entire planets without batting a eyelash.


   So when Alex finally made it to the escape pod, his face only registered a illusion of calm. This veil was broken completely by the next couple of words that came from speaker just as Alex raised his hand to pick it up. The characteristic tone  of a upper crust Southern elite spoke the first couple of words


" Good day Mr. Mercer. I have been expecting you."

 For a second Alex was flabbergasted, never would he have imagined the first words to come out of the man’s mouth to be anything near those words. He quickly recovered and fired back

“Didn’t take long for you to lose faith in your operative, did it?  Is that really the best your interstellar empire could afford to send? A heavy mech and a space hillbilly?”

“In my experience I have found that is best to never speak from anger, especially when it shows no purpose.  To answer your question no it didn’t take long for me to lose faith in Tychus, for the simple reason I never had any in him to begin with. After his failure on Char he had become a ….unnecessary loose end if you will. I thank you for taking care of him. “

“So you sent me your old laundry that was no longer wanted to kill me. I don’t know whether to be insulted or grateful”.

Mengsk laughed, but there was no warmth behind the sound.

"I am suprised that you haven't figured it out yet, my agents indicated that you are hyper-intelligent. It was never my intent to kill you, just to set up a place of private, unmonitored dialogue. "


"The purpose of this meeting isn't hard to guess....you never cared about fufilling any of Blackwatch's conditions, did you? "


" Son I really couldn't care less. This whole venture has had only one purpose, the-"


"The death of Sarah Kerrigan, the Zerg Queen of Blades."


"I see now that my agents are correct in their assessment of your intelligence. Sarah Kerrigan must die, and you will be the one to finish her off."


Alex bristled under the arrogance; he did not take orders from anyone.


"Now why would I want to do that? Even if you never intended to have me killed, that Walker of your agent nearly killed me. Perhaps I could find common cause with Sarah...I know your far from her preffered company."

"Threatening me is never a wise move, but I will do my best to answer your impudence with civility. The reason you are going to side with is that She can't give you what you really want,while I can."
"And what would that be?"
"Power my dear boy, power. Think of what you could gain by killing and absorbing the Queen of the Zerg?Think of what you could do to Blackwatch!"
Alex's thoughts tingled on the verge of hysteria, so excited were he by the prospect. Absorbing Kerrigan would give him everything he needed to claim this word as his own. Powers, her ghost training, intelligence, memories, control of the Zerg....and with that last thought, Alex's previous ambitions of just conquering a planet began to seem small-time.
" What would you gain from having me kill and acquire the Queen's power?"
 "You are asking why I am not afraid of you seizing control of the Zerg  and using them against me? The Zerg are finished son, this incursion is nothing more then the dying throes of a doomed race. I care not if you sieze control of the last vesteiges of them. Kerrigan on the other hand is a troublesome bitch, and will remain a thorn on my side as long as she lives. "

Mengsk's tone registered honesty, which immediatly made him supsicious. There was no way a man like Acturus Mengsk could have taken over his empire without some fantastic lying ability, and the ability to sound sincere even when one was blatently lying was a impressive skill indeed...

 From the way this man had just callously used one of his servents, Alex would wager that he had the same intentions for him too. That said, control of the Zerg would foil Mengsk's plans, and allow him to spread his control across the galaxy.

Speaking into the mic one last time, he said

"Very well we have a deal. Just tell me where to look..."

__________________________________________________________________________________

  For all his faults, Acturus Mengsk did possess one trait that he considered a necessity for any good ruler. Though in public he lied as much as any other politician (arguably more), in private he was extremely honest with himself, and the few others worth being honest (meaning mainly his son, Valerian).

  Thus he could freely admit to himself what type of man he was.

   He was a liar, a mass murderer, a narcissist, power-hungry dictator (yes Jim Raynor, I said it. You are correct), a revenge obsessed loony, a manipulator  and so much more. He didn't blame his son Valerian  for hating him; after all he was the result of a one night stand. Acturus had convinced his mother, the beautiful and kind Juliana, to fall in love with him, have sex with him , and then he never called her back, all the while she continued to believe what he felt for her was genuine love. Acturus never bothered to correct her, and only saw her three times thereafter; when the existence of a son was revealed to him, and then two small visits afterwords. Eventually as the disease took hold she began to see him for what he was, giving her final days a bitter edge. The last time he, Acturus, saw his son and heir was to bury the boy's mother.

  So no, the problem with Acturus was not that he didn't know his faults; rather that he didn't care.

 At the moment, Acturus has just finished convincing a powerful young man named Alex Mercer to kill his former second-in-command Sarah Kerigan. A second in command who he had betrayed. Whether he suceeded or failed in his task to bring her down, it was a forgone conclusion. Either he would be killed by Kerrigan herself, or he would die from Dominion nuclear bombs.

Lying to Alex Mercer was too easy, and even though Acturus knew he suspected dishonesty, by the time the battle would be concluded it would be too late. His Dominion fleet was on the way, and equiped with more two times more nukes then were used on Korhal. This version of Earth would become a giant ball of radioactive ash, and not even Jim Raynor's harrassment of his fleet would stop him.

 He had underestimated her many times in the past; on Tarsonis, when briefly allying aganst the U.E.D., even in recent events. IF she were allowed to live then the Zerg WOULD rise again, and that is not something that Mengsk would ever allow.

      And if needed to purge a planet with nuclear bombs like the Confederacy had done to his beloved Korhal to prevent such a occurence, then so be it. He had done worse.

__________________________________________________________________________________

      In a long deserted street near Randall Air Force base, a M1A1 Abrams tank was lifted into the air before being crushed with thousands of tons of psionic force. Several yards away Sarah Kerrigan sent a psionic blast at a Blackwatch squad, scattering them like bowling pins.

 I must be getting close, the heavy Blackwatch resistance being a great sign

  she thought as one of her roaches sprayed acid all over a frantic soldier in the background, killing him in a agonizing way.

 More Blackwatch appeared before her, their primitive rifles immediately opening fire. Kerrigan smiled as she stopped the rounds in midair, before sending them straight back at their owners. The conclusion was most satisfying…

  As she was admiring her handiwork one of her overlords came speeding towards her, its limbs arched back like the ears of a dog with its head out the window on a 70 mph highway. The floating squidlike organism spoke through telepathy.

“My queen, the base is just up ahead.”

Kerrigan, who hadn’t fully gotten used to being addressed as royalty, nevertheless gave her acknowledgement. However the overlord was not done talking, and this time a new voice came from it, like a different caller on a telephone. It was her advisor Izsha, her cool voice reverberated through the creature.

“ My queen, a large force of infected have been sighted on your area. They appear to be heading in the direction of Randalf air force base. “

        Sarah rolled her eyes; these infected were persistent but nowhere near a match for the Zerg ground forces, even though they currently outnumbered her forces by a 10 to 1 margin(pure irony, as it was the Zerg policy to destroy their opponents with pure mass). The infected were almost a complete close quarters foe, having little to no range other then the occasional throwing of a vehicle or object. Even Kerrigan, the great lover of blades and duels, recognized the importance of range. Hydralisks, roaches, and infestors had been slaughtering the infected in droves all day, to say nothing of the various air-

“Izsha! Where are the nearest brood lords?”

“About 25 miles south of your position, my queen.”

Damn, to far.

“Have the brood lords converge on position. Sends the mutalisks to harass the infected and set up a defensive line around the base comprising of infestors, lurkers, hydralisks and roaches. Have the roaches up front and burrowed until the infected close in."

With luck she could get in and out of this city without a hitch.

Sheltered inside an abandoned apartment building on its 15^th story, Alex had a great perch to view the slaughter of his infected. Those flying pitcher like mutalisks shot glaive like projectiles from their mouths that were capable of tearing through multiple infected-some many yards apart- before dissipating. For the most part they fired with impunity, though once Alex had seen a couple of hunters leap from a skyscraper onto a mutalisk. They rode it for dear life like one would a bull at a rodeo, before ultimately all 4-3 hunters and the mutalisk- crashed into a hotel.

 Meanwhile on the ground a combination of hydralisks and infestors were making mince-meat of the remaining infected. The corrosive green goo that the infestors shot out of their backs was particularly devastating, serving to both freeze the infected in their tracks AND slowly dissolve them. Alex wanted to absorb one of those creatures like a crack addict needed his next fix. But later. Now he had bigger fish to fry, as soon as Mengsk showed up on the scene.

        Thanks to his absorption of that Hydralisk earlier, he could tap into the Zerg telepathic network, and he’d know when the time was right to strike…

“ My queen, the overseer reports that a large Dominion force has entered the star system.”

Blast! She silently cursed to herself. Mensgk had shown up to early, much too early for her calculations. This made her send a mental command to her servants currently scouring the base for both scientists and materials (at the same time killing the few Blackwatch  soldiers in the city). They were to step up their operations now, and to deliver the materials to Abarthur. The scientists could be taken to the infestors, who would “extract” any knowledge that they might posses from their minds.

She turned back to her overlord.

“The native air forces on this planet have been dealt with. Have the corruptors , scourges and the mutalisks that aren’t guarding the brood lords go after Mengsk’s men. Hold them off until we can finish here. ”

“Order relayed my queen.The Dominion forces will arrive in-“

A telepathic screech cut off the speech, as a giant tank collided with the overlord, crushing its skull and squishing it as it landed. Kerrigan instinctively picked up her C-10 sniper rifle and pressed the scope to her cheek, the movement bringing her comfort. The rifle, repaired many times before, felt like an old friend to her. In all likelihood it was her oldest friend.

    Initial glances revealed nothing, but Kerrigan had long ceased trusting her initial glances. Based on the trajectory the tank had come from a rooftop, and her psionic sight scanned the roofs. In a move that brought back feelings of nostalgia to her, she also powered up her cloaking so that the enemy would have a hard time smashing her with another tank. ….

         …. That didn’t stop her assailant from trying, however, and a huge vehicle crashed into the spot she had occupied prior to cloaking.

           On all sides she was surrounded by buildings, the dense urban environment making it difficult to pinpoint his exact location. She knew that her assailant was on the south end of the street based on where the vehicle came flying from-

     Which is why she was shocked when a hail of lead came from the opposite end of the street.  The man carrying a gattling gun (of Dominion make) stood on top of a building on the Northen end of the street. Although he didn’t seem to be able to pinpoint Sarah’s exact position thanks to her cloaking, he was able to get an educated guess.  Bullets showered a position mere feet away from Kerrigan, making huge potholes in the road. Some of the debris showered her Kerrigan, covering her and revealing her position to the gunman. As her assailant moved his Gatling gun to her location, Sarah decided it was time to act.

Alex thought he was doing pretty well; the “Queen of Blades “ so far had demonstrated little of the ferocity that Mengsk had warned him about. Sure she could turn herself invisible, but that hadn’t been anything his thermal vision and a brilliant use of Tychus’s gattling gun couldn’t solve! With the queen now revealed, he brought the gattling gun to bear on her.

*Click*

In surprise he turned his head briefly to the gun, and was rather surprised to see that much of it had melted in on itself.

*PZZZT*

     A rifle round took advantage of this momentary distraction to bury itself in his chest, knocking him off his feet. The hole was large enough to utterly destroy his left lung; a mortal wound to a mortal man but something less to Alex Mercer. He jumped to his feet, another round tearing through the outer layer of his shoulder as he ran. Alex ran to the next building, leaping and ducking to avoid the bullets that continued to whizz by. One went straight through his jacket as he jumped; only narrowly avoiding hitting anything important. Zeus rolled as he hit the ground, before quickly running beyond Kerrigan’s sight to pick up a previously stashed grenade launcher.

 The Biological terror of New York paused for a moment to allow himself time to regenerate.  The bitch was tougher then he thought, but he had fought difficult foes before, and came out on top every damn time. This fight wouldn’t be any different.

      Alex’s super powered legs lifted him high in the air, and his eyes narrowed down to the streets below of anything bearing a thermal signature. He got a faint sigh, and then proceeded to bombard the entire area at the cost of enduring another round to the stomach. A hiss of rage from down below told him he was successful, but only moderately.

Kerrigan hissed in annoyance as her body worked to push out the innumerable shrapnel littered throughout her person. More grevious damage had been done to her gun, which had been nearly ripped in half . After the mission she was going to have to spend days meticulously repairing it (again).

  She glared menacingly at the building that he was hiding in, both pissed and grudgingly impressed by the acrobatic feats. Adopting once again the fearsome voice she had perfected as the Queen of Blades, she spoke

“I have grown tired of this game of whack a mole. Prepare to die”.

    As soon as she finished speaking those words a orange clowd materialized over the building. Alex, not knowing what it was exactly but immediately wary from his prior experiences with the crusader Dante moths earlier, broke into a run. His intuition was proven correct as a horde of razors descended en masse on the structure, tearing through steel and iron like they were balsa wood.

 Alex felt his skin rip n tear, but managed to leap out of the area just in time as the building was dissolved, for lack of better word, behind him.

Just as he was about to complete his jump and land on the next building something hit him in midair, knocking him off course and causing him to crash into the building. 

     His eyes closed via reflex as soon as he was hit; now he struggled to open them as a sticky liquid substance covered them. With a great deal of effort he managed to bring his arms, also covered in the sticky substance like much of his body, up to his face to wipe off the gook.

 It was a thick green slimy substance that to Mercer looked like a terrible case of mucus, one that was nearly impossible to cough up. Alex vainly tried to get rid of the goo by switching forms but to no avail; the substance seemed to bong with his skin, inhibiting his movement.  As Alex struggled to wipe it off, the skies began to grow orange around him.

 Now panicking, he broke into a painful run as the shards came alive around him.

Now flanked by two hunter-killer gaurds, Kerrigan licked her lips as she watched the destruction, before realizing that she was no longer that person. Still the devastation her storm  unleashed on that building was a morbidly impressive sight.

       As the razors died down she brought her psionic sight back online, peering into the dust for a sign of her foe. She had a pretty good idea who he was now, as she remembered a hooded man in the mind of James Heller, a man named Alex Mercer. That didn’t mean she knew what he wanted though-

“Looking for me” said a cold voice to her side. She turned to look at him and almost gasped in spite of herself.

    Quiet frankly Alex Mercer looked like the rotted, disease-ridden infected that he commanded. Much of his scalp ahad been ripped off, and thousands of cuts marred his body. His right eye dangled from its socket And a zigzagging line ran down from his crotch to his neck. Below the waist it looked like a dog had chewed on his legs for a couple of hours, and one of his arms dangled loosely from its socket. In short Alex Mercer looked like shit.

        Before Kerrigan could take all of this in, her 1^st hunter killer was killed when his uninjured arm extended out an extraordinary length and sliced the beast in two. The other immediately opened fire as the remains from the first were pulled towards Alex. Alex gleefully accepted the corpse like a thirsty man arriving at an oasis, and before her eyes even his most grievous wounds seemed to regenerate. Kerrigan sent a psionic blast his way in an attempt to reverse the regeneration.

  The blast knocked him on his ass, and seemed to make his only madder, and he changed forms rapidly while down. Alex stood back up under a hail of fire from the remaining hydralisk, his form now black and registering little damage from the spines. Just as Kerrigan was about to fire another Psionic blast, he did something that Kerrigan would never have expected.

He arched his chest; his face screwed up in pain, and then began to fire Hydralisk spines at her.

      So surprised was she that her telekinetic powers didn’t even have time to register, and she took 7 to the torso and a couple more elsewhere under the machine gun hail of spines.She collapsed to her knees, and Alex’s attention turned to her minion. Her remaining hunter killer only got off a few more spikes before it was covered in its own medicine. The great beast collapsed into the pavement, never to move again.

With that loose end taken care of, Zeus focused his attention back on her, but this time Sarah was ready. A great ball hit him dead on in the chest where he had previously been shooting the spines.

    It wasn’t another ball of sticky green goo but something far more insidious.For lack of better term, the Queen’s attack had done something contrary to all laws of human biology. It had given him quintuplets. And these babies were something out of a video game designer’s hell. They possessed no eyes; only a horrible sharp mouth 2 pincers and 4 claws. 

       They hatched as soon as they landed, bursting out of their eggs and diving straight into his chest, bypassing the armor form in the gap that Alex had been using to shoot spines. The pain was unbearable; multiply the worst chest burn by a factor of 20. Alex’s hands turned into hammerfists, frantically punching and trying to tear his babies away from their mother (father?).

      One he pulled away and crushed, showering the left half of his face with gore. Another he pulled out and punted at the Queen of Blades, who merely ducked and sent a psionic blast his way. Alex jumped into the air to dodge it before realizing a solution to his problems, albeit a painful one. When gravity beckoned him back down he belly-flopped the Earth, crushing the remaining three cretins still trying to dig into his chest.

  His body gladly absorbed them in order to fix the wounds that they had caused. While this was occurring the voice of his foe penetrated his ears.

“I’ll give you one thing; you have some impressive powers, but they pale in comparison to mine. Leave before you die on a fool errand for Acturus. You’d hardly be the first to end up that way.”

 The last syllables seemed to be laced with bitterness, and it wasn’t hard to figure out that she had personal experience in that regard.

“ I am well aware that Mengsk is a liar and is probably on his way here to double-cross me. It does not matter to me, your powers are the only thing that does. He’ll be taken care of when the time comes.”

“Fool. Better men then you have tangled with me and fallen. The great abyss is all that awaits you. “

          Alex’s keen senses tipped him of just at the right time, and he only narrowly dodged a column from one of the buildings destroyed earlier. Kerrigan was now resorting to telekinesis and more objects came crashing down towards Alex. It seemed that she had managed to take control of much of what the razors hadn’t destroyed, and was now trying to bury Alex in steel. Such a display of powers only made Alex more determined to absorb her, to acquire them for his own. Morphing his fists back into Hammerfists, he rushed her.

        The queen’s wings flexed in anticipation for a new battle, and her claws ached for close quarters combat. Cracking her neck, she met him head on.

    First blood was hers as one of her wings slashed him across the face, however Alex did not allow such blows to go unpunished, and his fist smashed into the middle of the wing, bending it and nearly snapping it in half.

     His other fist attempted to smash into her noggin, four of her wings catching it within mere inches of its target. She attempted to twist as he attempted to wrench himself free, neither succeeding in their task. Enraged Alex punched her in the gut with her other fist before the remaining wing had a chance to respond, doubling her over and freeing the early fist. He swung the other fist upwards, catching her in the chin and sending her flying from the force behind the blow.

       Her own agility taking form, she recovered gracefully, landing on her feet like a cat and promptly sent a psionic blast at Alex, which took a chunk out of his chest and staggered him back. The movement masked his real intent, and she only just avoided his whipfist’s attempt to impale her. Unfortunately it quickly came back around, entangling her and pulling her towards him and his remaining claw hand….

Kerrigan felt her eyes water as the claw dug into her guts, penetrating may vital organs. The pain was near unbearable as Alex began to slowly twist the blades, causing her to cough up blood. In a rage she reached up to his face, and pressed her own claws into his eye sockets, gouging them and shifting the scales in the fight. Blood sprayed Kerrigan’s face but she kept up the attack; soon enough she would reach his brain, and then the real fun could begin.

      Alex was having none of it, and threw her off. The queen’s body impacted with a building somewhere as Alex frantically struggled to regenerate his eyes, the originals now shiskebabed on Kerrigan’s nails. 

    It hadn’t been the first time his eyes had been disconnected from his body, but it was still an unwelcome experience.

        That paled in comparison to what happened next, as his head suddenly exploded in pain. The pain was excruciating, and if he had eyes right now they would scrunch up in pain. His mind blasted back to his conversation with Mengsk, and how the old man had warned him that Kerrigan could directly attack brains, liquefying them.

           Now in desperation Alex quickly opened his deformed eye, getting a glimpse of the Queen’s position. He charged, his arm turned into a shield as he sprinted towards Kerrigan.

Apparently she hadn’t been expecting much in the way of resistance, and it caught her straight in the chest, breaking her concentration.  Though the purpose of the charge was fulfilled, this joyride was far from over and Alex took her down the street with him, deliberately slamming into any cars his eye could see.

   Kerrigan had never been a woman who would let a man run roughhouse over her, and would not make an exception for Jim Raynor much less Alex Mercer. Fuming as he rammed her into yet another car, she suddenly realized that her newly formed wings reached over the shield. Sensing a golden opportunity she drove them downwards again and again, each blow pulling out a bit of him, only ending the barrage when Alex slammed her into a building.

    His arms changed forms again; time resembling ordinary hands with beefed up muscles. Sarah tried to drive her spears into Alex’s chest, only for the surprisingly strong arms to stop all six of them, crunching the tips. Amazed at the strength that power possessed, she attempted to evade his next punch, only for Mercer to surprise her in speed. The blow sent her reeling back, but she was able to recover with a psionic bolt that stopped him in his tracks.

Her Psionic bolt having failed to keep Alex Mercer penned away, Kerrigan resorted to another power of hers; Pulse. Alex dodged the burst of energy but that did not bother Kerrigan at all; the effect radius was too large. Sure enough it landed right behind Alex, blowing him off his feet. With that accomplished Kerrigan prepared to follow through with

_____________________________________________________________________________________

      
 Many millions of miles away, Zerg and Dominion battled for the fate of the system. The Zerg air outnumbered what little Mengsk could send, however what he did send was the best, the most elite, of his space fleet. Though here and there the Zerg managed to take down a few of the mighty battlecruisers, overall they were taking more losses then giving them. Such was the Zerg way; however in this battle the aliens couldn’t afford to use such a tactic, as they were now the ones outnumbered.

              Alex did not know what Kerrigan hit him with, only that it reminded him of Dante’s fruit. His muscles were numb, and he couldn’t move a muscle. His biomass was still able to get around, however Kerrigan was too far away to use a devastator effectively.

 However just as Alex was about to panic, his the numbness in his muscles began to disappear. Relief flooded into him, which turned out to be short-lived   as a blue cloud descended over him. 

 For the second time in a day, Alex felt his brain being directly attacked, as the blue shockwave lit up the ground around him.

 He struggled to pick himself up as the shockwave grisly effect became increasingly clearer. Blood flowed out of the orifices on his head; the mouth, ears, nose and even eyes. He could feel himself losing….his intelligence as the storm began attacking the higher functioning area of his brain first.

       Desperate now his super adrenaline kicked, gradually phasing out the numbness that resorted from Kerrigan’s first power. Now in control of his legs he sprinted, his higher functions now moribund but an animalistic desire for revenge and to kill driving him straight towards his nemesis Kerrigan.

 This feral Alex was a frightening sight, even more frightening then the skeletal Alex that had emerged from the razor storm earlier. His eyes glowed red like a 28 days later infected from various blood vessels being burst inside, blood ran freely down his face, and he was drooling. A crazed frantic look was engraved on his face, and would remain such until his brain cells regrew (which took longer than normal wounds, as brain cells are much harder to regenerate).

      Feral Alex registered the shocked look on Kerrigan’s face and matched it with a grin of his own, one that unnerved even a hardened woman like Kerrigan.

    He leapt out of the shockwave towards the Queen of Blades, his right arm turning into the blade form mid-flight. Kerrigan raised her Claws to shield herself from his attack, as Alex’s blade-backed up by biomass and adrenaline, slashed downwards.

 For a few seconds the result was not known to either warrior.  Alex landed on his feet, his blade still swung downwards. Kerrigan’s wings remained intact, and for a moment it looked like the blade had no effect.

            And then the wings collapsed like flower petals so cleanly slashed through. Kerrigan stepped backwards and then nearly collapsed. From the looks of it the Blade had cut deep through her body, almost severing her reinforced spine. Taking advantage of the situation, Alex kicked his foe into a wall.

   Before he could close in to finish her off his neck muscles tingled and then were violently compressed in on each other. He gasped fruitlessly as his windpipe was forcefully closed, rendering breathing impossible. With Kerrigan’s hand outstretched it wasn’t hard to guess who was behind the choking, and Alex aggressively advanced on her.

 2 steps and he started feeling dizzy...

6 steps and his vision began to get all fuzzy....

10 steps and it became difficult to walk, and it finally became clear to his slowly regenerating mind that this wasn’t working, and that there was a better tactic…..

 Summoning all the biomass into his arms, he shot them forward at Kerrigan. Tendrils pierced the Queen, impaling her in dozens of places and crashing her though the wall. The critical pain devastator had been designed as Alex’s most devastating move, and Kerrigan found that out first hand. The attack had succeeded in what most couldn’t do, and overloaded her regeneration. She collapsed to the ground, unmoving.

             Alex confidently strode forth now, excited at the prospect of what the queen’s powers would give him.

*Bang*

 Once again Alex was stopped from achieving his dream, as something blasted him back. His brain nearly fully repaired, he tried to make sense of what happened.

    You know when you get dazed and for a brief moment afterwards your seeing double? Well this is what happened to Alex Mercer, except now he was seeing quintuplets. 
     Yep, there were now five Kerrigan’s within his field of vision. Four of them were up on the ground, while the fifth feebly stirred on the ground. One of the standing ones held a smoking sniper rifle, so obviously these clones meant business and could dish out some heat.

 Alex’s whipfist reached out towards the closest Kerrigan, as the others opened fire.

    

While in Space the Zerg were barely holding on, reduced to 40 percent of their original strength, on the ground the Zerg had had their fortunes reversed. Though the infected had kept on the ropes with pure numbers for a while, gradually the Zerg’s range and underground fighting began to reap a greater advantage. The final edge for the aliens came with the newly arrived brood lords, who rained down innumerable swarms of broodlings upon the infected. With the broodlings absorbing all the damage and the hydralisks shooting over their heads, it wasn’t long until a Zerg victory was a forgone conclusion.

 Which is just as well, as a Psionic cry for help from their Queen penetrated the collective swarm’s thoughts. The Swarm abandoned its tasks, and rushed with great haste to the sight where their queen was; which was about four blocks away. Alex’s remaining infected did the best they could to hamper their movement, but by now they were too few, their force exhausted on the Zerg line of defense.

Kerrigan’s regeneration worked overtime to repair the massive amount of damage sustained from the blade and devastator attacks, as she struggled to gather up enough energy to get up. A multitude of shots echoed in the background, as her clones strived to destroy the now armor-form equipped Zeus.

      She had called out to the swarm in her desperation, something she wanted to avoid as that meant in a sense forfeiting battles elsewhere. They would lose anyway if she lost, which, she had to admit to herself, seemed fairly likely at the moment.

       The familiar sound of a blade slashing  through air reached her eardrums, and she looked up to see Alex Mercer, with more  dents in his armor then could be found in  weathered battlecruiser, had divided one of her clones in two. The Psionic shadow disappeared into nothingness, and Kerrigan silently thanked whatever deity was out there that Alex couldn’t absorb them, as they lacked genuine organic parts.

   Her wings and lungs continued to heal, but for now she was too weak to win a fight with him. She hoped that the clones would buy enough time for either her full strength to return or for her swarm to come reinforce her, but if it came down to it she still had one more card to play….

       

Alex drove his musclemass enhanced fist into a clone’s face, breaking it in and causing her to dissipate like ash to the wind. Two more now before the main course. Raising his claws, he drove them in the Earth, sending a groundspike at one of Kerrigan’s clones who unfortunately dived out of the way.

     Annoyance overcame him; this was taking way to long, and he suspected he might not have much time if Mengsk reneged on the deal (Alex heavily suspected that he would) . He sent his whipfist at one of the clones, only for the other to blow it out of the air with sniper rifle. Alex snarled, before a rumbling of the Earth distracted him.

      Realizing that the Swarm was coming to join the fray, Alex realized that it really was now or never. He had to take care of Kerrigan before they arrived, or the battle was lost.

     Alex knew that a devastator would hurt him, but saw no other choice. Tendrils erupted out of his body in all directions, impaling the two clones and removing them from the equation, but failing to do anything to the real Kerrigan, who had backed up out of the devastator’s range.

 Changing his hand to a blade form one last time, he rushed towards her.

 -Unexpectedly his mind reeled back to the moment in which he was shot to death, giving him the familiar feeling of agonizing pain and making him briefly forget where he was. His mind was sent reeling over his execution over and over again, the flashback being so intensive that he was only brought out of it by the feeling of blades going through his arms.

Using her incredible strength, Kerrigan lifted her attempted assailant in the air, wanting to finish this now before Acturus showed up. When Alex had been raised to a point higher then herself, struggling all the way, she pulled her wings in two directions ripping his arms off! Alex barely gave a grimace, which would be the last emotion his face ever registered. Her wings bisected his neck, separating it from his body. It bounced a few times on the ground before rolling into the gutter.



“Regenerate that!”



Usually Sarah would say something more, but she was too drained at the moment. Her Zerg had finally arrived, and she needed to get off this planet ASAP.




“Abathur,” she spoke to a nearby overlord,who could relay the message “have you found anything? Time is running out”


“My Queen! One of the human scientists possessed knowledge of the virus that I can use to evolve an anti-body to!”

She was naturally a bit reluctant to trust her fate in the hands of another, but ultimately decided that there was no better option, as there was not enough time. Plus Abathur had never failed her before, never failed the Swarm before in his long existence as evolution master. Suddenly one of her Hydralisks began to hiss and Kerrigan turned around once. To her Horror Alex was actually regenerating his wounds, and had already regrown half a head. Thinking quickly she reached out and grabbed two of her banelings, before flinging them directly at Alex. The acid covered him and burned through the biological monster’s flesh, reducing him in mere moments to green liquid.



Sarah observed him for a couple of moments more, before summoning her leviathan. She needed to get off this rock, and she knew that if she did, Mengsk’s men would predictably follow her, saving the planet.


Been too long since I did a good deed, she mused to herself, I wonder what it feels like?

Epilogue: 

In his various lifetimes the entity currently known as Samir Duran had gone by many names, and may forms. He had watched civilizations rise and fall dozens of times over; in fact he had been the accomplice in the demise of quite a few. All had been done in the name of his master, the enigma known as the Dark Voice (Samir Duran was one of the few who knew of his true identity, but he would never tell a soul). For there was no more loyal servant then he, but just like any other dog Duran feared what his master’s wrath would be like when he learned his chief servant had failed.

The plan had been expertly designed; Samir had orchestrated the entire chain of events, from arranging a meeting between Dominion and Blackwatch under his guise as the Dr. Narud, to ensuring that the communication line between Mengsk and Mercer held despite interference. Duran wanted Mercer to kill Kerrigan- and then to die before he could take control of the Swarm in Mengsk’s nuclear bombardment. Duran would have been very surprised if he could have asserted control of the swarm in the time it took for Mengsk to arrive, as it took him months to gain control of the infected (while on the subject, it took a similar amount of time for Kerrigan to take control of the Swarm). Thus all loose ends would have been covered, and the master’s grand plan one huge leap nearer to completion. Such did not come to pass…

Nevertheless though individual plans may fail, the grand scheme carries on. There are plenty of other fights out there; his master had mentioned a few. But what if that was the wrong course of action? What if the policy of finding of arranging for individual fighters to take her down was ….inefficient? 

The Dark Voice wanted the Zerg intact , but he said that the death of Kerrigan was of the “utmost priority”. Sometimes higher priorities demanded some sacrifice of the lower ones. The Dark Voice would get his Zerg, but they may not be intact…

Duran knew just the faction to take on the Zerg, one that wouldn’t lose nor be able to destroy them utterly. … Samir concentrated, and after a moment he was where he needed to be. 

In an alternate universe on the planet known as Armageddon….

“ Warboss, there be a humie in da camp!”

“What!?!? Why did you boyz let in a blasten humie and not kill it? The pure incompetenenece of ya little ungrateful  weaklins . Nevermin, ill kill the vermin  myself!”

“ Warboss Ghazghkull, I have a proposition for you…” 

Back on Earth a rat picked at the remains of Alex Mercer, or more specifically the head of him. Alex’s pale face stared motionless at the rat as he began to tear through his cheekbone, happy to finally have a good meal in this city. Well the vermin was happy until the cheek regenerated with his still inside. The rat screeched and tried to crawl his way out as Alex’s biomass wrapped itself over him. Alex Mercer may have lost a battle, but he wasn’t done by a long shot. He would rise again from the gutter...

______________________________________________________________________________

  In a titanic contest between two characters that just wouldn’t die, Alex ended up kneeling over first. Why? Well it turned out that why Alex was actually the harder one to kill, Kerrigan had much better means of accomplishing the task then vice versa when psionics were factored in.  That was probably the most critical edge here, as Alex could not compete with the supreme amount of powers that she possessed. He fell behind there and never recovered.

Sarah Kerrigan vs. Alex Mercer: Battle and results:

Category:	Sarah Kerrigan	Alex Mercer:
Super Long Range:/40	32	28
Long Range: /50	38	37
Mid-range: /40	36	38
Close range: /30	24	15
*Special* Biomass vs. Psionic Powers: /80	74	52
Expansion powers :/30 (allies :/10)	/24 (10/10)	/18 (6)
Default armor: /15	9	4 (slight Mobility edge)
Other Defenses: /40	26	36
Mobility: /20	14	20/20
Regeneration:/30	27	30
Miscellaneous Powers: /20	17	14
Personality/Tactics: /30	28	24
Motivation: /20	15	12
Training/Experience: /40	40/40	36
Past Opponents:/30 (Future: /5)	26 (5/5)	20 (3/5)
Last Victory: /5	2	5/5
Martial Arts/Fighting Style: /20	18	14
Psychology:/20	15	15
Known Weaknesses: /-20	-12	-14
Total: /575-555  (if they aced KW)	468	413

Reasoning behind score: Super Long Range:  Both warriors were limited her by the other’s defenses; speed in the case of Mercer, and Psionics in the case of Kerrigan. Kerrigan’s extreme skill with the sniper rifle, as well as the rifles superb properties such as full auto and explosive rounds, helped her immensely in this battle. Alex’s resourcefulness helped him narrow the lead however.

Long Range: The Psi Blast’s explosions were very helpful in both setting up the kill and taking it, though the whipfist two could fulfill both these categories easily, while the groundspike had the capacity to instant kill. Neither of them had the range nor the reliability of the Psi Blast, which is extremely difficult to dodge. That is what caused them to lose out to the power.

Mid-Range: Kerrigan’s six spears in one package was formidable, but couldn’t compete with the blade’s speed, powerhouse cutting abilities and the Hammerfist’s….scratch that, it was the blade that won a hard fought edge. The Hammerfists were too slow to do much.

Close range: This is the first large edge in the battle, and with good reason. Kerrigan’s martial arts, while great helpers couldn’t take on two effective weapons at once, while Kerrigan’s claws failed to kill Mercer very much. The Musclemass could just breeze through Kerrigan’s armor, and the claws were pretty effective too. Of course mid range was vastly preffered by both warriors

Special: Psionics vs. Biomass: A well-deserved near perfect score….Why? Because Kerrigan’s powers offer too much range, too many options, too much lethality for the devastators, which only possessed the last option, to compete. Don’t get me wrong, the devastators would have done superb in the battle, but not done enough….

Expansion Powers: Kerrigan’s powers did have limitations: Thermal vision could probably see through to the real Kerrigan, broodlings could be absorbed ect. That said she actually got powers, all of which are at least slightly effective, while Alex really only got the power to control infected which weren’t that good against Psi storm/the Swarm.

Allies: The Zerg completely outclassed the infected here, but this category wasn’t that important, as it really only functioned as a side show that occasionally spilt out in the main showing…..

Default Armor; not very effective armor that doesn’t hurt mobility much vs. no armor. Gotta go with the real armor, as while it may not defend from blades/hammerfists/musclemass, it’s still something.

Defenses: This was actually a greater edge for Mercer then previously indicated, as groundspike could kill her easily while underground (except for deep tunnel, which digs so deep that this is ineffective, and she could only use that once). The fact that Mercer’s armor could be omnipresent gives him a substantial edge.

Mobility: This is like a race between Will E. Coyote and the roadrunner, with Mercer being the roadrunner. Perfect score for him.

Regeneration: these two were very very difficult to kill and could regenerate ridiculously fast, but ultimately Mercer’s consumption ability proved to be his trump card.

Misc. Abilities was actually close due to Mercer’s ability to potentially absorb powers, however Kerrigan’s telepathy and ability to induce flashbacks eventually won him the edge. Cloaking also made a impact.

Tactics: Kerrigan has proven that she is a genius in both duels and pitched battles, and takes this edge even over the hyper intelligent Alex.

Motivation: Kerrigan is very fatalistic and seems very skeptical of whether she can make her goals, but she still pursues them with a iron will. Alex doesn’t nearly fight for as much.

Training/Experience: absorbed training/experience vs. actual experience/training  made this a surprisingly close edge, but Alex hasn’t absorbed anything like a ghost, who surpass Blackwatch in methods.

Past Opponents: In the duals with opponents of the two warriors, Alex was much more likely to fail against Kerrigan’s then vice versa. Kerrigan’s fought thing’s Alex could never dream of, while Kerrigan has fought plenty of Alex’s opponents (organic horrors, black operatives) .

Future Opponents: James Heller did well, but Nova/the Dark Voice maximized this for Kerrigan.

Last Victory: Alex would have learned more valuable lessons from beating Dante then Kerrigan would have (she loved close quarters fighting too much, and didn’t learn much from dually similarly armed protoss).

 Martial Arts: Kerrigan’s renowned Martial arts skill, capable of defeating even the Protoss who train for hundreds of years, gave her the edge over Alex’s absorbed training.

Psychology: This is even; both were fucked up in different but equal ways!

Known Weakness: While originally coming out as a Mercer edge (meaning he’d have less points taken away), once I found out that flashbacks had an extreme effect on infected, I have to give it to Kerrigan.  

Now for everyone’s favorite kill chart (Almost everything here acquired a lot of assist, so I will not go into detail about that) . Reasonings for why they got such and such score can be found in the edges explanations above.

Category	Kerrigan	Alex Mercer:
Super Long range:	C-10 Sniper Rifle: 458	Acquired Weapons: 134 Thrown Objects: 78
Long Range:	Psionic Blast: 347	Whipfist: 289 Groundspike: 45
Mid-Range:	Wings: 396	Blade: 576 Hammerfists: 132
Close Range:	Martial Arts: 34 Claws: 67	Claws: 80 Muclemass: 176 Misc: 25
Combined Power sections:	Psionic: 1,400	Devastators: 599
Allies(not a big role):	Zerg: 106	Infected: 58
Total:	2,808	2,192

Well I hope you enjoyed my latest match, and stay tune for more announcements ( I got a lot of proposed matchups, both real and fictional, that I think you all will enjoy) , as well as the Xbox 360 clash of the decade J

Also I wonder how many of you can guess who is encountered at the end of the epilogue...