Jace X vs. Project X

Chapter 1: Darkness Doesn't Die

     I watched over my city from the street as I walked through the crowds with my hood over my head. Anyone I walked past seemed to not recognize me, which I was glad for.  After the chaos I caused a few years back, I was glad to not be recognized for it. I came back to my hometown of Draken City to check out how things had been, but I wasn't planning on staying that long. I had to get out and do... whatever anywhere else.

     As I walked through the crowds, I moved to the cemetery where I walked over to my grave. It felt weird, yet comforting to look over my own grave, knowing I wasn't actually in it. I looked to the other graves and saw my family, and I saw Dawn's tombstone. I knelt beside them all and pulled my hood off my head.

     "I'm sorry I pulled you all down to this. If I could, I wouldn't have put you all in danger like this." I sighed as I stood up. "I can promise you I won't let what happened to you guys happen to anyone else. I've made sure of that. I've taken out every scientist involved with that serum that created me, and I made sure they wouldn't do any more harm. I guess I just came to say Goodbye. I wasn't able to last time, so..." I nodded and sighed again. "Yeah... Goodbye." I stood up and walked out of the cemetery, pulling my hood back up.

     I had one last stop to make before I left. I walked to this familiar house that I checked on every so often when I got the chance. I lifted my hand to ring the doorbell or knock on the door, but I froze and couldn't bring myself to do it. I looked through the window and saw three people; I saw Jade and Jacob and a small child that they took in. That kid was supposed to be raised by Dawn, but I ruined that chance for the both of them. I saw the three playing in their living room, and I slowly backed away. I pulled out a small package from my jacket pocket and I placed it on the doormat, then I rang the doorbell and left. As Jacob answered the doorbell, I was already gone.

     It was late at night by the time I got to the city limits. I was planning to leave the city by foot and just go wherever I was led to by the road. Before I could leave, I looked up and I saw something in the distance. I squinted to see what it was, thinking it was some kind of bird. As the silhouette got bigger and drew closer, I realized it was targeting me. I tried to move out of its way, but whatever it was, it landed right on top of me. It was a person, covered in dark armor and a mask that only showed their hair and eyes.

     "You shouldn't have come back!" They shouted as they grabbed my by the hair and jumped into the sky, landing on a rooftop. I skidded across the rooftop and rolled over to the edge, coughing. I stood up and the person charged at me. I shifted my arm into a blade to slash at them as they got closer, but they did that same thing and blocked my blade with their own, one that was sharper, more jagged. My eyes went wide as I struggled to push them back. They broke away and they tackled me over the edge of the rooftop. I grabbed onto the edge and tried to pull myself up. The attacker just kept me dangling and they pulled themselves up.

     "Who the hell are you???" I asked as I hung over the edge.

     "You'll live," They said as they stomped on my hand and I fell from the rooftops. I woke up some time later in a crater in the ground and I slowly sat up, brushing dust and rubble off me as I coughed. A ghost was haunting me, I thought to myself, and they had my powers. I had to find the only person who could have been behind this. I drove to the offsite facility that my friends and I had locked away the worst of the worst that we dealt with. I passed by all the cells with unrecognizable faces in them and I walked towards the very end of the hall, looking at the door. I banged my fist against the door and waited for him to come over.

     "What's the password?" I heard Rathburn ask from the other end and I slammed the door.

     "I don't have time for your games, Rathburn!" I shouted as I looked through the clear door. "So I was in my hometown earlier when I got attacked by someone with the same powers I have. Mind explaining how the ever living FUCK that's possible???" I asked, anger spilling from my voice.

     All Rathburn did was laugh as he said, "So you've finally met him, have you?" He stood up from his bed and he walked over to the door. "Listen to me when I say no matter what you do, you can't stop this guy Jace." He looked at me through the small window through the door. "He's everything you are, only much more powerful. He's your upgrade, Jace. He's my Project X." He laughed as he kept his eyes on me. "I will tell you this, he is hellbent on making you suffer and he'll make sure your death is slow and agonizing. And more than likely, he will kill you before you can even find out who he is, if you haven't already."

     "Be lucky this door separates the two of us, Rathburn," I told him and turned to leave. I gave a quick glance to another cell door and I saw Darce, once a good friend to me who turned into an enemy. "Hello Darce," I said and I saw him look up from the bench in his cell.

     "I hate that name," He said as he didn't move. The tubes going through his skin always made my skin crawl as they looked way too uncomfortable to have inside. "Seems like you have a new problem to deal with." He nodded towards the general direction the exit was. "So get to it, and leave me in peace." He hated me and blamed me for what happened to him, to our friends, to everyone, and I agreed with him on those parts. I walked out and returned to the city, making sure I wasn't attacked again from that lunatic Project X. I rented out a hotel room and grabbed the notepad from the desk, then began to write down several names.

     I wrote down Dr. Rathburn, then everyone he and I both commonly knew, to see if I could narrow down the possible identity of Project X. This  constant reminder that he was out there and I had no idea who he was, where he could be holed up at, or why he's so hellbent on killing me. I heard a knock on my door and I warily got up to look through the peephole and I saw someone in front of the door. "Oh you're fucking kidding me..." I said as I opened the door.