The Cybernetic Evolution’s opinion of mutants probably isn’t much better than their opinion of humans. This is probably a scouting force to assess the defenses and resistance level here, well to hell with that you aren’t going to let them report shit. You immediately open fire. You kill the smaller one in the center with relative ease, but the others go into battle mode and start laying down the firepower. You nearly get yourself killed before managing to take cover.

Other mutants hear the sounds of battle and rush to the area to help you, and soon the metal interlopers are a pile of sparking scrap.

“What the hell, you find new enemies for us?” one of the mutants asks you.
“Nah, I don’t think we’ll be having any more problems with them. They’re busy with a war with the Combine; I doubt an army of cyborgs will be coming here anytime soon. Better go report this to the Captain though.”

Soon after the cyborg diversion a lot of rumors start flying around that the Cybernetic Evolution will be attempting to invade Zeropolis or even that they’ve somehow allied with the Shadow Horde, but none of these rumors even come true. Though it does make Captain Salazar paranoid enough to take the current war with the Shadow Horde more on the offensive, of course this doesn’t pan out too well.

When Salazar starts sending troops into the actual sewers they’re at a severe disadvantage and the losses on your side are terrible, yet the Captain insists on carrying out this plan.

A few years go by and the Dust District’s defenses are nearly completely destroyed. You’re one of last defenders left and the Zeropolis Guard no longer exists as you know it. After Captain Salazar was struck down by an assassin the organization dissolved and it just became a bunch of armed mutants trying to defend their homes.

It’s a futile endeavor though the Shadow Horde is relentless and as much as you might hate it, you have to leave; it’s just simply not safe to stay where you are anymore. The question is where to go?

There are probably other places in the City where the Shadow Horde isn’t as strong or even in control, but that might just be a temporary solution and it might not be any safer. The only other option is to leave the City which is certainly going to be dangerous as you know mutants aren’t looked upon too kindly.
> You leave the City
Going to another part of Zeropolis really isn’t going to help. The Shadow Horde will just eventually move on to those as well, you need to get out of this damn City. Even if you are hounded by humans at every turn, at least they’re easier to deal with than those overgrown beasts that are in the Shadow Horde’s ranks.

Still you think you can make things slightly easier for yourself. You’re a mutant, but you aren’t exceptionally mutated to such a degree that you couldn’t pass yourself as one with a disguise. You immediately start searching through old Zeropolis Guard equipment, when you find a gas mask you think “Pefect.”

You also get some gloves and hooded cloaked, basically clothing that will completely hide your body and face. When you look in a broken mirror you are confident that not many would think you weren’t human unless they insisted you take off your mask.

After gathering what other supplies you think you’ll need you leave Zeropolis. You’re not sure where you’re going to go though, you do know you’ll have to keep moving to avoid suspicion in human towns and given the Combine only just recently won its war against the Cybernetic Evolution, its troops might be on a heightened state of distrust.

However the world is a big place and this is just a small section of it, who’s to say mutants are shot on sight everywhere? Hell maybe there’s even a place where there isn’t killing going on every five seconds. Probably not, but it’s worth a try to look for.

With this new goal in mind you begin your trek into the wasteland.


You see where this is going; the Zeropolis Guard is fully intent on their delusional plan and they’re going to be the top assholes in this area, so you might as well join them to reap the benefits. It’s better than being at their complete mercy and it’s certainly better than living in fear of the Shadow Horde, at least the Guard seems to want to restore order.

The next day you go find Captain Salazar who is pretty easy to find since he’s currently giving speeches in the streets to the Dust District inhabitants of how they should actively join the Zeropolis Guard. Not too many takers, but none of them are in any position to argue with the occupation. When you go up to Salazar to tell him you’re interested in joining, he’s pleased to just have someone taking him up on his offer.

Of course he wants to know more about you and where you’re currently staying, and you do tell him about the warehouse, just not about the secret GZS rooms underneath. He’s a little bewildered of why you’re staying there rather than a proper house in one of the neighborhoods, or even your own house. To this you reply that you used to live in one of the Downtown apartments, and couldn’t live there anymore due to the danger. You mention during your time of madness you ended up wandering this way and just took up residence there and now even though you’re better, you’ve made it your home and feel comfortable at that place. You also go on to say that you prefer to be away from large crowds of people.

Captain Salazar frowns at that last statement.

“Y’know we are a military unit, teamwork is encouraged here…though I suppose we need all the help we can get right now, so I guess you’ll be on scouting duty. Maybe if you prove yourself, I’ll put you on sniper duty. As for your living arrangements…I guess you can stay there. That area is pretty empty and there isn’t anything there except a few warehouses, we’re more interested in the plant and factory. However it’s the perfect place where the Shadow Horde might stage a sneak attack from due to its remoteness. So consider yourself the sentry in that area. I wish we could use our radios, but the radiation levels here…well are sort of screwing up the signals. We’ve been trying to train messenger rats, but so far the little furry bastards just run off to the nearest source of food, so you’ll be reporting to me personally every two days where I’ll either give you new instructions or tell you to continue what you’re doing. Unless I hear otherwise and you don’t report, I’ll give you one more day and then I’ll assume you’re either dead or have deserted. If you’re dead then you’re dead, but if I find out you’ve deserted, my wrath will be terrible, and you’ll wish you were dead.”
“Okay, but what if I was captured?”
“Ha ha ha ha! You’re joking right? Not really much of a chance of that happening. Ferals just kill, and the Shadow Horde might capture you, but they won’t let you live afterwards. I trust you won’t let yourself get captured then right?”
“Guess not.”
“Good. Let’s see, what can you do…I got everyone else working on other things, right now we’re tracking down all the sewer manholes in the area and shoving the remains of cars on top of them. Others have been sent to raid nearby police stations in the hopes of finding more weapons and ammo. Okay what you’ll be doing is scouting and clearing out the factory; we’ve discovered that all the Feral activity in the area has been coming from those places. At least that’s where we’ve seen them all run off to, you can go retrieve your assault rifle seeing as I haven’t given it to anyone else yet.”
“Am I working by myself, or with others?”
“Well from the impression of getting, you’d probably prefer working alone, but that’s simply too dangerous for what I’m sending you in to do, you’ll need someone watching your back, so I’m sure you’re familiar with Private Ackman here…”

You then see the soldier who kicked you yesterday. He doesn’t look any friendlier and just nods at you.

“There will be other small detachments exploring various parts of the factory as well so more ground can be covered, but for the most part you two are on your own. Dimissed.”

You and Ackman go carry out the mission in relative silence. Private Ackman doesn’t seem to care for you, or at best he doesn’t want talk to you unless it’s absolutely necessary. This doesn’t really bother you though since he is a good fighter, and is making this mission a lot easier. The factory is a huge place though even in its current devastated state; there are several sections, multiple levels and it covers a lot of land. It’s going to take awhile.

After a few months of factory clearing you and Ackman have the highest Feral body count so far, and their attacks on the Dust District are becoming non-existent. Due to this accomplishment, many of the inhabitants have a little more confidence in the Zeropolis Guard and as a result more people have volunteer to help, either by joining directly or by attempting to fix the power plant. Shadow Horde attacks occur sometimes, but even those aren’t as frequent. Zeropolis is a big place, and presumably they’ve turned their attention to easier areas.

Four years pass…

It’s been five years since you set foot in Zeropolis, and the place has changed quite a bit, well in your area anyway.

Most of the factory has been safely stripped to help rebuild the district. The nearby plant has parts of it fixed and partial electricity has been restored to the district as well. Feral attacks are completely unheard of in the area now, they’ve either all been killed, or in a few cases, managed to retain their sanity again.

The Zeropolis Guard has firm control of the area and has been attempting to restore a few old vehicles to work again mainly using jury-rigged steam engines, though the many stills created to make hooch certainly serve the same purpose to create “Garbage fuel” as it were for vehicles. Oddly one thing that has surprised everyone is that new mutants are actually being born! Not many, but it still came as a surprise when one of the female mutants found out she was pregnant, when it was assumed everyone would’ve been sterile due to the radiation, but then again the fact that you’re all still alive is proving that you’re all working on a different biological level now.

You’ve risen in rank with your superior sniping skills, and saving others you’ve effectively become second in command. You’re looked upon as sort of a “hero” figure among the Dust District.

The Shadow Horde is still around, but attacks have less frequent. This perpetual war with them is basically at a standstill. The Zeropolis Guard has many more resources, but not nearly enough people. Captain Salazar is irritated by this fact, but there’s not much he can do about it. His big idea of bringing order to the entire City is slowly being crushed as he realizes this might never be possible. In desperation he’s sent a few people OUT of Zeropolis in the hopes of somehow getting help, but so far all his efforts have resulted in failure. People don’t like or trust mutant, and it’s mainly due to another organization attempting to “tame the wasteland” known as The Combine. With most of the outside towns under their control, they’ve developed “a shoot mutants from the City on sight” policy. Salazar’s behavior which was at one time just pleasantly dedicated is now becoming obsessively totalitarian.

However, you’re standing by your warehouse home one day when you see some outsiders visit Zeropolis. They aren’t entirely human though, they look like cyborgs. Which would explain why they have no rad suits.

There have been reports of The Combine currently at war with their own enemy called the Cybernetic Evolution. You’re not sure what it’s all about, but you’re guessing they probably see themselves as superior to humans. (You’ve seen enough movies in the past to know that’s always the case!)

You can’t imagine what they’d be doing here, unless they intend on proving themselves superior to mutants as well. There aren’t many of them, but most of them are heavily armed.
> You open up dialogue
You wonder if you’ve lost your mind again, because you can’t believe you’re even considering this…

“Hey! Uh, hello! This is Zeropolis Guard territory! What do you want?” you call out to the group of cyborgs. One of them briefly talks to its heavier armed brethren and then steps forward to meet you; it’s a female, mostly human looking cyborg. She’s sort of cute, well cuter than what you’re used to around here anyway.

“Yes, greetings. I am AVA-93, former human remade, emissary prototype, from the Cybernetic Evolution.” She says unemotionally.
“Prototype?”
“Yes, I am one of a kind. The Cybernetic Evolution typically does not believe in wasting time with words. We prefer a more direct course of action as we are attempting to remake humanity to a higher state of evolution.”
“I see…so what purpose do you serve then since you guys tend to shoot first and ask questions later?”
“Why to make contact with you mutants of course. The Cybernetic Evolution is currently at war with a human organization called the Combine. They refuse to see the light, are a committed foe and greatly outnumber us. So we must find every means available to defeat them. We have heard that mutants are victims of human prejudices and that you are typically shot on sight when found outside the City.”
“Well I suppose you could say that, though I can sort of see why they might be suspicious of us, many of us aren’t exactly friendly types.”
“Yes, I have heard that most mutants are completely hostile, I am surprised to see the amount of organization you have shown as I thought this was not the case.”
“Around here, we’re the exception rather than the norm, so what did you have in mind?”
“An alliance of course. We would like you to help us destroy The Combine.”
“Whoa, hold on there. I’m not exactly in charge of this place; you’ll have to talk with Captain Salazar, as he runs the Zeropolis Guard. There’s also the fact that we’re in a war ourselves with a group of mutants that outnumber us, we wouldn’t be able to help much. Then there’s the whole fact…”

You hesitate, but AVA-93 demands that you continue.

“Yes?”
“Well there’s that fact that if you’re trying remake humans into cyborgs, what happens after you defeat all the humans? Will you try to remake us as well?”
“A thoughtful question. At the present time, you mutants are not suitable candidates for remaking, though what the future holds is unknown. However you can be rest assured that if we ally we will never attack you as long as we are at war with The Combine.”

That answer doesn’t really make you want to suddenly be their friend, though it was an honest answer. The only thing you can think of is let Captain Salazar decide how he wants to handle this, so you take AVA and the rest to see him.

During the talks Salazar doesn’t seem very concerned about what might happen in the future so much as what an alliance can do for him now. AVA mentions that they can supply him with their own high tech weapons to help in the war with the Shadow Horde, if the Zeropolis Guard starts raiding nearby Combine towns. He immediately agrees, and AVA leaves explaining that the first shipment will arrive as soon in the mean time they want an attack launched on the Combine immediately.

You advise strongly against this course of action. The Shadow Horde hasn’t even been attacking in large groups like it once did. You don’t like the idea of fighting a two front war and spreading your strength so thin, and you still don’t like the idea of allying with a bunch of cyborgs with a superiority complex. Salazar doesn’t want to hear it though; his vendetta against the Shadow Horde is too great. He wants them gone and is willing to do anything for the chance. In fact he’s pissed off at you for advising against it, so he says he’s sending YOU along with a few others to start attacking the Combine towns!

You leave Zeropolis for the first time in five years; it’s very odd to you. Everything seems different, like cleaner. Even the air seems fresher. You almost feel like you don’t belong here anymore, the others traveling with you feel the same way. Soon you approach a nearby town; of course you stay away for awhile plotting of how to approach this situation.

Over the course of a few months you organize successful raids on Combine towns, mostly at night, taking advantage of your night vision. (Which seems perfect at this point)
While you do feel superior to them, you don’t have any particular hatred for humans; this is just job to you, nothing more. You don’t have too much resistance for the most part. Most of the Combine force is holding off the Cybernetic Evolution. But you do lose people under your command, some through the attacks, but some due to being called back to Zeropolis. Apparently the Captain is having a lot more difficulty than he thought when he started sending troops down into the sewers to take the fight to the Shadow Horde. Eventually you’re all by yourself! In fact you’re wondering why Captain Salazar hasn’t called you back since you’re his second in command, you know he was pissed at you, but if he’s calling everyone else back, why not you?

At this point you can’t even really do too much, except maybe hang out in the wilderness sniping the occasional Combine citizen or soldier. In fact given this situation, you get the feeling he’s pretty much abandoned you.

Maybe you should just leave. It’s not like you couldn’t survive out here. Your time in Zeropolis has made you better in everyway. You could even withstand long periods of food and water if need be. (Though lately you’ve been eating the mutant wildlife and drinking their blood to sustain you, so it isn’t really a problem)
> You wait awhile
You figure you’ll give it some time; you’re not in a hurry to go anywhere.

A week later and you wake up to a little mutant getting ready to push you to see if you’re awake, you immediately wake before he can do anything, slam him to the ground and put your knife to his throat.

“Hey! Stop! I’m on your side!” he gasps.
“Oh? What the hell are you doing here? Did the Captain finally decide to send me some help again?”
“The Captain’s dead!”
“He’s fuckin’ dead?”
“Yeah! He got assassinated by some big ass motherfucker! Anyway that’s why I was sent to get you! You’re next in line to take charge.”
“Wow. I would’ve thought someone would’ve just taken power themselves and left me to rot out here.”
“Well, I think a couple of people had that idea…but then they realized the job wasn’t worth it. The Shadow Horde has been taking the offensive ever since Captain Salazar insisted on pursuing them in their sewers. We need a leader to get us out of this mess and you’re the only one we have!”

See you knew no good was going to come of this.

“Alright, let’s see how much shit we’re in…”

You make your way back to Zeropolis and the Dust District is showing signs of battle, which is difficult to do since the place was a wreck to begin with. Dead bodies are being moved out of the street and the people look hopeful that you can somehow get them out of this mess.

First thing you do is order a complete pull out of the sewers and reinforce your defenses in the Dust District. There’s no point in pursuing an enemy that’s lived in the damn sewers for years and knows them like the backs of their hands. Right now you need to regroup after the losses Salazar has incurred due to his recklessness.

Second thing you do is order no more attacks on Combine towns, you can’t afford the man power and you didn’t like allying with the Cybernetic Evolution anyway. However, another shipment of weapons was already on its way when you enact this order. The cyborgs who arrive wonder why they haven’t heard any reports of mutants attacking the Combine. Seeing that this alliance is over anyway. You immediately have the cyborgs killed (Which is easier than you thought it would be) and keep the weapons to help your own struggle.

A couple more cyborgs arrive a month later probably to investigate what happened to their fellows, and you have them killed as well. Your hope is that the CE will think they’re losing them to Combine ambushes and will eventually just forget about you. And apparently they do because no more cyborgs are sent. You just hope the CE doesn’t win against The Combine.

Eventually you manage to restore relative safety to the Dust District, its not safe like it once was though, but at least it isn’t on the brink of disaster due to Salazar’s mad plan. Being in charge isn’t exactly a fun job, and its obvious why to as why nobody wanted to do it. Still the people see you as a savior of sorts and generally like you as a leader.

The warehouse that you live in, has been converted into the new head quarters, though you still live in the secret underground part that only you have access to…well at least you thought you did.

One night you wake up in your room to a very pale woman by your bed. Obviously she’s a mutant, but she’s somehow managed to avoid the ugliness and scaring that goes along with it, though she does have part of her face covered. She holds a pistol, but seems to be inspecting the place more than paying any attention to you.

“Boy this was so long ago and another life time…please don’t go for your gun, I’m here to talk…my, you are a pretty one. Almost human looking…almost.” she says finally paying attention to you.
“How the hell did you get past the guards?” you answer calculating how quickly you might be able to reach her before she can get off a shot.
“This war between our respective groups has taken a toll on both of us for quite sometime…I would ask that we finally have peace.” She says ignoring your question.

You gather she’s from the Shadow Horde, though you’ve never seen one like her. She’s not brimming with muscles or trying to rip your head off for one thing. (And somehow she actually smells nice and unsewer like!) She is exuding a weird aura though, like you have a great desire to follow whatever she says. It’s difficult to shake off these effects, but you try to keep a level head.

“Peace? You’re ones always coming out at night to eat people! We were just trying to defend ourselves!”
“…yes I have come to understand that now…and I appreciate your desire to exist. You have held out against us for years and accomplished much within that time. However I would say that your most recent attack on us was most definitely equally as brutal. You came into our sewers…our home and murdered innocent women and children, decreasing the ranks of our future warriors and birth givers. You came in using weapons of unparalleled power and destruction, unleashing blinding rays of light, incinerating at a touch.”
“Yeah, well like I said, YOU started it…however that recent attack wasn’t my idea. I thought we shouldn’t spread ourselves out so thin.”
“Yes, I’m aware of that, your Captain Salazar is dead and you have taken his place, which is why I feel I can talk to you about coming to you about putting an end to this conflict once and for all. I know of your deeds and you seem to be a lot more rational and reasonable than your predecessor. Anyway, I’ve come to the conclusion that this conflict is only going to harm us in the long run. We have to think about the future. The future of mutant kind relies on us no longer fighting each other. I thought survival of the fittest was enough when I first embraced my evolution, I believed that only the strong should be allowed to rule…but now I see that isn’t enough if we wish to thrive, we have to unite.”
“What exactly are you getting at?”
“Oh come on, you know that we’re the next stage of evolution. Humanity is the past, we’re the future.”
“Hmmm, I think I know some cyborgs that feel the same way.”
“Ah yes your cybernetic allies who you temporarily allied with, only to ruthlessly back stab later. Obviously they aren’t the future if they needed your help to defeat some humans. Listen to me, this City just isn’t divided between the Zeropolis Guard and the Shadow Horde you know…there are other factions. You just never come on conflict with them because you’re sectioned off in one corner of the City constantly fighting us and never able to spread out effectively. All these factions fight each other and that’s not counting the Ferals. I’m proposing that we could take the first steps in truly uniting Zeropolis. We could first approach in friendship, and if that regrettably failed, we could take by force. Who could stop us? The Shadow Horde has a higher birth rate and the numbers, while the Zeropolis Guard has the resources. You’d attack on the surface and we could attack from below. We could rebuild the world in our image.”

This rant is followed by her putting down her pistol, climbing on to your bed and seductively crawling closer to you, while taking off her strange protective mask revealing that the rest of her face isn't all scarred or mutated either. You feel really compelled to give in to her, and it’s not just the fact that it’s been awhile since you’ve been with a “human looking” chick. It’s whatever aura she’s exuding. It must be some sort of weird mutant ability she developed, but even though you’re aware of it, that doesn’t make it any less likely for you to want to resist. She’s making a point you haven’t considered before…you’re in a position of power, why not use it effectively?

Her face is an inch away from yours and the only thing you can sputter is…

“What’s your name?”
“I’m known as the Queen by the Horde, but you can call me Lisa.” She replies before kissing you passionately.
> You give in
You have no desire to resist her advances and you totally give in to consummate this new alliance in a very special way…

Afterwards you and Lisa get to know one another a little better. It’s funny that she finally returned to the GZS research outpost after all these years. At the time you were kicking Owen’s ass to take refuge here, she was attacked and nearly killed by Ferals and had to hide for several days struggling to survive. She mentions how she nearly died, how she got sick, how she came to accept the changes in her body, and how she managed to unite the sewer dwelling mutants.

You and Lisa talk about how you do both feel a sense of superiority to humanity, though it would seem Lisa has felt this way for a lot longer than you have and has stronger feelings about it, whereas you never really thought about it until you were actually killing Combine members. Indeed she does have a stronger feeling of only the strong should survive mindset, though that might be due to the harder path she had when trying to survive during those first few years.

You and Lisa begin to make plans for unifying Zeropolis. It isn’t widely accepted at first, as there are hard feelings on both sides. Your side is willing to stop the fighting, but their a little leery of an alliance. However, your standing is good so you don’t suffer outright rebellion, just a lot of grumbling. Lisa’s side is even less receptive; you honestly don’t know how she manages to keep those big hideous freaks in line even if she does have mutant pheromones and a strong force of will. As it turns out, the Shadow Horde for the first time splits and bickers among itself. Lisa manages to keep control of most of it, but not without an underground civil war.

After all the smoke clears, the Shadow Horde and the Zeropolis Guard (Which you’ve renamed the Zeropolis Legion) maintain a shaky alliance.

Five years pass…

Ten years have passed since you decided that going to the City would be a great place to find supplies…

Unification of Zeropolis has been going as planned, but its still slow going. Most of the Ferals still alive have managed to overcome their relentless need for violence and food, but that doesn’t mean they are any nicer. The Shadow Horde has more success with those types as great display of strength, intimidation and fear work well. On your end you’ve managed to employ more peaceful means of incorporating the less hostile groups of mutants, such as restoring power to their areas and rebuilding. (The messenger rat system for long range communication even works well now)

You and Lisa could be considered “together” but it’s a distant relationship. She runs her part, you run your part and every now and then you get together. She has some sort of feelings for you, but she’s very much in her own world sometimes. Though the same could be said for you, but you do have feelings for her as well.

Lisa has also had your child. (Predictably 9 months after your “agreement” to the alliance.) A son, though you don’t get to see him too much, mainly because Lisa wants him to be closer to her. In fact you get the impression one of the reasons she had sex with you was in order to have a fairly “normal” looking child. She called him Adonis. It would seem that for all her talk on mutant supremacy, she still holds the “human” standard of beauty in high regard, (though to be honest so do you!)  She’s already training him to be self-sufficient with minor “tests” she sets up in the sewers; however despite this rather harsh training Lisa is very protective of Adonis.

The main faction standing in the way is one that has somehow gained momentum relatively recently over the last few years. A cult of mutants called the Glow Children, have taken over a great portion of Zeropolis through their weird faith. They follow a leader calling themselves the Savior. In your experience, groups with any type of religious faith behind them are never willing to negotiate and they aren’t an exception. They are utterly fanatical and devoted to their cause. They also engage in attacks from the sewers as well, causing you to believe that ex-Shadow Horde members fill their ranks. They’ve made their headquarters (or Cathedral as it were) at the old hospital.

You and Lisa are supposed to meet tonight with the rest of your respective cabinet tonight to determine how to best approach the Glow Children problem. You’re walking out of your headquarters with your guards when from out of the street a very very LARGE creature appears with the biggest fucking gun you’ve ever seen. Its resemblance to humanity is superficial even by Shadow Horde standards. You haven’t seen ANYTHING like this before.

“Goddamn it Lisa what the fuck are your people doing!? You’re supposed to be defending that area!” you yell to yourself ducking back inside your headquarters and lying flat. The creature’s weapon rips through the door and the walls, killing many of your men. You hear gun fire outside followed by screams.

You know damn well it’s probably going to laugh at normal weapons so you run to grab those old CE weapons you haven’t used since the Alliance. Time to use those plasma guns again.

The creature breaks through the remaining bit of wall ignoring the bullets flying into its back, a Shadow Horde member presumably coming from the sewers jumps on it and stabs it in the head, but the giant aberration only grabs him and breaks his neck with a squeeze of his own enormous hand and throws the lifeless body through the nearby wall. You’ve never seen a Shadow Horde member treated like such a mere annoyance, and for once in a long time you really are scared.

You grab a plasma gun while the creature is still preoccupied with your guards doing their best to bring it down and that’s when you fire a hot bolt of plasma into its massive body, again, again, and again, until the damn weapon overheats and burns your hands, causing you drop it. Fortunately you’ve melted enough of its internal anatomy to cause it to finally collapse and die.

“Alright what the fuck IS that thing?!” you shout wincing from the pain in your hands.
“It’s a fucking big ass freak, that’s what it is.” One your men says. “You don’t think it’s a Horde member do you? You think they…”
“No, no, shit I hope not. Besides I just saw it kill a Horde member with its bare hands like it was nothing, never seen that before. Might’ve been an Ex-horde member at one time though.”

Another one of your soldiers comes in through the hole in the wall and has more news for you.

“Just got word from one of the horde, they got a similar attack on their Queen. Don’t worry though, she’s alive and so is your son. She said she’ll be arriving soon.”

That relieves you on several levels; you were sort of worried about them even if you all aren’t exactly a proper family unit. You and some of the others inspect the body of the fallen creature. Damn thing is huge, but what disturbs you more is the fact you’re seeing cybernetic implants…not to mention its weapon is pretty high tech stuff, similar to the same ones you received from the Cybernetic Evolution…

“Oh shit, we got cyborg mutants.” You say.
“What? But how? I mean…last we heard The Combine won that war. Just barely, but they won.” One of your soldiers replies.
“Yeah, well it looks like there were survivors and they probably want revenge on us and what better way of doing that then by helping our enemies? (Sigh) the only good thing is that they can’t possibly be able to have access to a lot of this high tech stuff anymore; they don’t even have the means of manufacturing it since we own the factories. They’re probably just using scraps and pieces they managed to take with them after the beat down they suffered from the hands of the Combine.”

Though those “scraps and pieces” can still do a lot of damage, and that’s not even counting the regular fanatical cultists. You’ll really have to get this attack plan with Lisa organized quickly. Suddenly you hear MORE sounds of battle! The Glow Children have sent more of their suicidal attackers to wreak havoc in your territory, most likely attempting to get to you though. Your guards suggest you descend down into you private quarters for protection, until Lisa arrives.
> You wait in your quarters
It won’t do anyone any good if you’re dead so you decide to follow your guards’ advice and enter your quarters. Should at least be safe down there.

At least that’s what you think. When you enter your living area, you’re immediately attacked by another hidden assassin! He stabs you several times before you throw him off of you. You weakly pull your pistol and blast the mutant cultist several times, but he absolutely refuses to die!

“FOR THE SAVIOR!” he screams and finishes you off by shoving his knife in your throat, before he dies.


You have no desire to resist her advances and you totally give in to consummate this new alliance in a very special way…

Afterwards you and Lisa get to know one another a little better. It’s funny that she finally returned to the GZS research outpost after all these years. At the time you were kicking Owen’s ass to take refuge here, she was attacked and nearly killed by Ferals and had to hide for several days struggling to survive. She mentions how she nearly died, how she got sick, how she came to accept the changes in her body, and how she managed to unite the sewer dwelling mutants.

You and Lisa talk about how you do both feel a sense of superiority to humanity, though it would seem Lisa has felt this way for a lot longer than you have and has stronger feelings about it, whereas you never really thought about it until you were actually killing Combine members. Indeed she does have a stronger feeling of only the strong should survive mindset, though that might be due to the harder path she had when trying to survive during those first few years.

You and Lisa begin to make plans for unifying Zeropolis. It isn’t widely accepted at first, as there are hard feelings on both sides. Your side is willing to stop the fighting, but their a little leery of an alliance. However, your standing is good so you don’t suffer outright rebellion, just a lot of grumbling. Lisa’s side is even less receptive; you honestly don’t know how she manages to keep those big hideous freaks in line even if she does have mutant pheromones and a strong force of will. As it turns out, the Shadow Horde for the first time splits and bickers among itself. Lisa manages to keep control of most of it, but not without an underground civil war.

After all the smoke clears, the Shadow Horde and the Zeropolis Guard (Which you’ve renamed the Zeropolis Legion) maintain a shaky alliance.

Five years pass…

Ten years have passed since you decided that going to the City would be a great place to find supplies…

Unification of Zeropolis has been going as planned, but its still slow going. Most of the Ferals still alive have managed to overcome their relentless need for violence and food, but that doesn’t mean they are any nicer. The Shadow Horde has more success with those types as great display of strength, intimidation and fear work well. On your end you’ve managed to employ more peaceful means of incorporating the less hostile groups of mutants, such as restoring power to their areas and rebuilding. (The messenger rat system for long range communication even works well now)

You and Lisa could be considered “together” but it’s a distant relationship. She runs her part, you run your part and every now and then you get together. She has some sort of feelings for you, but she’s very much in her own world sometimes. Though the same could be said for you, but you do have feelings for her as well.

Lisa has also had your child. (Predictably 9 months after your “agreement” to the alliance.) A son, though you don’t get to see him too much, mainly because Lisa wants him to be closer to her. In fact you get the impression one of the reasons she had sex with you was in order to have a fairly “normal” looking child. She called him Adonis. It would seem that for all her talk on mutant supremacy, she still holds the “human” standard of beauty in high regard, (though to be honest so do you!)  She’s already training him to be self-sufficient with minor “tests” she sets up in the sewers; however despite this rather harsh training Lisa is very protective of Adonis.

The main faction standing in the way is one that has somehow gained momentum relatively recently over the last few years. A cult of mutants called the Glow Children, have taken over a great portion of Zeropolis through their weird faith. They follow a leader calling themselves the Savior. In your experience, groups with any type of religious faith behind them are never willing to negotiate and they aren’t an exception. They are utterly fanatical and devoted to their cause. They also engage in attacks from the sewers as well, causing you to believe that ex-Shadow Horde members fill their ranks. They’ve made their headquarters (or Cathedral as it were) at the old hospital.

You and Lisa are supposed to meet tonight with the rest of your respective cabinet tonight to determine how to best approach the Glow Children problem. You’re walking out of your headquarters with your guards when from out of the street a very very LARGE creature appears with the biggest fucking gun you’ve ever seen. Its resemblance to humanity is superficial even by Shadow Horde standards. You haven’t seen ANYTHING like this before.

“Goddamn it Lisa what the fuck are your people doing!? You’re supposed to be defending that area!” you yell to yourself ducking back inside your headquarters and lying flat. The creature’s weapon rips through the door and the walls, killing many of your men. You hear gun fire outside followed by screams.

You know damn well it’s probably going to laugh at normal weapons so you run to grab those old CE weapons you haven’t used since the Alliance. Time to use those plasma guns again.

The creature breaks through the remaining bit of wall ignoring the bullets flying into its back, a Shadow Horde member presumably coming from the sewers jumps on it and stabs it in the head, but the giant aberration only grabs him and breaks his neck with a squeeze of his own enormous hand and throws the lifeless body through the nearby wall. You’ve never seen a Shadow Horde member treated like such a mere annoyance, and for once in a long time you really are scared.

You grab a plasma gun while the creature is still preoccupied with your guards doing their best to bring it down and that’s when you fire a hot bolt of plasma into its massive body, again, again, and again, until the damn weapon overheats and burns your hands, causing you drop it. Fortunately you’ve melted enough of its internal anatomy to cause it to finally collapse and die.

“Alright what the fuck IS that thing?!” you shout wincing from the pain in your hands.
“It’s a fucking big ass freak, that’s what it is.” One your men says. “You don’t think it’s a Horde member do you? You think they…”
“No, no, shit I hope not. Besides I just saw it kill a Horde member with its bare hands like it was nothing, never seen that before. Might’ve been an Ex-horde member at one time though.”

Another one of your soldiers comes in through the hole in the wall and has more news for you.

“Just got word from one of the horde, they got a similar attack on their Queen. Don’t worry though, she’s alive and so is your son. She said she’ll be arriving soon.”

That relieves you on several levels; you were sort of worried about them even if you all aren’t exactly a proper family unit. You and some of the others inspect the body of the fallen creature. Damn thing is huge, but what disturbs you more is the fact you’re seeing cybernetic implants…not to mention its weapon is pretty high tech stuff, similar to the same ones you received from the Cybernetic Evolution…

“Oh shit, we got cyborg mutants.” You say.
“What? But how? I mean…last we heard The Combine won that war. Just barely, but they won.” One of your soldiers replies.
“Yeah, well it looks like there were survivors and they probably want revenge on us and what better way of doing that then by helping our enemies? (Sigh) the only good thing is that they can’t possibly be able to have access to a lot of this high tech stuff anymore; they don’t even have the means of manufacturing it since we own the factories. They’re probably just using scraps and pieces they managed to take with them after the beat down they suffered from the hands of the Combine.”

Though those “scraps and pieces” can still do a lot of damage, and that’s not even counting the regular fanatical cultists. You’ll really have to get this attack plan with Lisa organized quickly. Suddenly you hear MORE sounds of battle! The Glow Children have sent more of their suicidal attackers to wreak havoc in your territory, most likely attempting to get to you though. Your guards suggest you descend down into you private quarters for protection, until Lisa arrives.
> You stay where you are
As much as you probably regret getting yourself into this mess by EVER returning to the City, you are a leader now and you’re determined to continue to act as such.

Sometimes you wonder what would’ve happened had you bought that bomb shelter…

You stay and demand to be informed on the current situation so you can position the defenses better. You want double security on the borders. You also order that all non-combatants should stay in their homes.

When Lisa arrives she has Adonis with her, as well as her own retinue of guards. After telling a couple of your men to take Adonis to your quarters and look after him, you and Lisa begin to talk in your half ruined warehouse.

“We’ve been getting attack from all sides here you know.” You say.
“So have we, the ex-members that broke off from my Horde have been leading many of these attacks at least as far as the sewers are concerned.”
“Yeah well we got bigger problems, have you noticed some of the firepower a few of these Glow Children are packing?”
“Yes, the same type that you used against us five years ago. Some of my people are starting to think that this is some complex ZL plot to wipe us out again, I’ve had to alleviate those concerns though I can’t say it didn’t cross my mind.”
“Hey, I nearly got wasted by that colossus lying on the floor over there! And as you said your own ex-disgruntled employees are leading a lot of the attacks so don’t think the same thoughts of treachery haven’t gone through our mind up here as well!”
“Funny that you should think that about us since we don’t have the history of betraying our allies…”

An argument about accusations breaks out until gunfire from your quarters is heard.

“Adonis!” Lisa says stopping her ranting at you.
“Oh fuck!” you say and run to the ladder with everyone else not far behind.

When you get to your quarters, you see a dead mutant cultist lying on the floor with multiple gunshot wounds, one of your men lies dead with multiple stab wounds and happily Adonis is still alive with one of your guards breathing hard. Adonis immediately runs to Lisa when he sees her.

“Whew! That motherfucker did NOT want to die!” he says.

After thanking the soldier profusely, you make a check wondering how the fuck the assassin got in, the only one who ever got through the door before was Lisa and that was because she managed to subdue your guards and had prior knowledge of the place.

And that’s when you see a hole in the wall in one of the bedrooms, that hole now leads to the sewers. Knowing damn well that Lisa would make it known that harm should NEVER come to Adonis, any theories that the Shadow Horde is somehow behind things are out of your mind. Lisa’s speculations for you are squashed as well.

“See, the enemy is trying to sew the seeds of mistrust. The old divide and conquer, well to hell with that, they fucked up big time with this clumsy assassination attempt. That’s it we’re mobilizing every fucking thing we got, we’re pooling our resources and…”

You get another report while in the middle of your speech.

“SIR! THEY’RE ATTACKING DOWNTOWN!” a soldier shouts from the upstairs.

“Fuck!” you exclaim and rush to the scene.

When you arrive cultists are throwing home made bombs all over the damn place, some of them are purposely blowing themselves up.

“Aim for the goddamn explosives on their chests before they get close!” you order, while you engage in your own fighting from afar with your rifle. They’re coming like swarms of lemmings though and the body count is growing, monstrosities like the one that tried to kill you earlier are proving cover fire for the gibbering suicide cultists.

You need to get into a better position to do the maximum amount of damage, so you look for higher ground while Lisa directs from the street level. You enter one of the buildings and begin running up the stairs to get to the roof. In the process of the excitement, you notice something.

“Damn, I used to work in this building.”

After this brief thought of the past you make it to the roof, where upon you’re kicked in the face as soon as you exit the door, dropping your rifle.

“Good! I’m glad you avoided the assassins, I was hoping to finish you off myself.”

As you stand up, you see a nasty looking creature, with a hideous appearance.

“You’re going to pay for what you did to me, YOU turned me into this! With your lies and your assault! I was NORMAL until YOU came and ripped me from my protective sanctuary!”

You immediately know who this is.

“Owen?”
“Silence! I’m the High Priest! Owen DIED when you threw me into the blasted City! Do you know how much pain and sickness I suffered? How many years I wandered the streets of Zeropolis little more than an intelligent Feral? You realize how long it took me to get over the madness?”
“Well from where I’m standing I don’t think you’re quite over it.”
“Oh you’re wrong, quite wrong, when the Savior came, she brought clarity to us all. She will bring true order to this City, not the Horde and not the Legion, but the Children! For the Children ARE the future!”
“Yeah…and you say you got over the madness?”
“It doesn’t matter what you think! What matters is you’re going to pay for ALL your lies and treachery tonight! To me AND the Savior! YAAAAGH!”

Owen attacks you, which you narrowly dodge and trip him to the ground, he rolls out of the way and jumps back up.

“Owen, you really want to continue this exercise in futility?”

Owen attacks you again at which point you punch him in the face followed by a kick to his nuts. While he crumples to the ground you retrieve your rifle.

“Alright Owen, you know what happened last time…and trust me I WILL be shooting if you attack again, now what are the defenses of the Savior at the…”

Owen pathetically tries to grab the rifle from you, at which point you blast him in the head splattering his brains and skull all over the roof.

“Idiot.”

You grab Owen’s corpse and throw it on to the street battle below. His body lands in a bloody broken heap before some of the Glow Children. Upon seeing one of their top leaders dead, this is a great blow to their morale.

“YEAH, THAT’S ONE OF YOUR LEADERS DOWN, NOW GO TELL THE FUCKIN’ SAVIOR SHE’S NEXT!” you shout and begin sniping the ones in retreat.

After attempting to mop up the stragglers, the general report is that the Glow Children greatly expended a lot of their manpower in this last attack. It’s odd; it’s almost as if this “Savior” doesn’t really care about controlling the city at all, just destruction.

Lisa suggests an attack be made immediately before they can put up a suitable defense, she’s still upset about Adonis nearly being killed, but you’d like to at least regroup and mount an organized attack.
> You attack now
Lisa’s emotions might be running high, but it does make some sense to attack now. You order a full push to the hospital and not to stop until everyone of the Glow Children are dead along with their Savior.

The battle to the hospital lasts a couple days mainly because your forces aren’t in a cohesive attack group, you’re getting reinforcements, but it would’ve been more efficient regroup first and come at the GC with some sort of battle plan rather than relentlessly throwing troops into the fray until you break through.

By the time you get to the hospital, that’s where you meet the last stand of the Glow Children, and it’s also where their battle elite are. The last cybernetically enhanced mutants come out in force and begin mowing down the Alliance troops at an alarming rate, you have order a retreat.

During this retreat, one of those giant battle monsters that tried to assassinate you a few days ago targets its weapons on you and mortally wounds you. You lie on the ground and lift your head up long enough to see both of your legs have been blown off and your guts are hanging out. The creature now stomps in your direction ready to finish you off.

You sure hope Lisa can finish this war by herself, because it’s over for you.


As much as you probably regret getting yourself into this mess by EVER returning to the City, you are a leader now and you’re determined to continue to act as such.

Sometimes you wonder what would’ve happened had you bought that bomb shelter…

You stay and demand to be informed on the current situation so you can position the defenses better. You want double security on the borders. You also order that all non-combatants should stay in their homes.

When Lisa arrives she has Adonis with her, as well as her own retinue of guards. After telling a couple of your men to take Adonis to your quarters and look after him, you and Lisa begin to talk in your half ruined warehouse.

“We’ve been getting attack from all sides here you know.” You say.
“So have we, the ex-members that broke off from my Horde have been leading many of these attacks at least as far as the sewers are concerned.”
“Yeah well we got bigger problems, have you noticed some of the firepower a few of these Glow Children are packing?”
“Yes, the same type that you used against us five years ago. Some of my people are starting to think that this is some complex ZL plot to wipe us out again, I’ve had to alleviate those concerns though I can’t say it didn’t cross my mind.”
“Hey, I nearly got wasted by that colossus lying on the floor over there! And as you said your own ex-disgruntled employees are leading a lot of the attacks so don’t think the same thoughts of treachery haven’t gone through our mind up here as well!”
“Funny that you should think that about us since we don’t have the history of betraying our allies…”

An argument about accusations breaks out until gunfire from your quarters is heard.

“Adonis!” Lisa says stopping her ranting at you.
“Oh fuck!” you say and run to the ladder with everyone else not far behind.

When you get to your quarters, you see a dead mutant cultist lying on the floor with multiple gunshot wounds, one of your men lies dead with multiple stab wounds and happily Adonis is still alive with one of your guards breathing hard. Adonis immediately runs to Lisa when he sees her.

“Whew! That motherfucker did NOT want to die!” he says.

After thanking the soldier profusely, you make a check wondering how the fuck the assassin got in, the only one who ever got through the door before was Lisa and that was because she managed to subdue your guards and had prior knowledge of the place.

And that’s when you see a hole in the wall in one of the bedrooms, that hole now leads to the sewers. Knowing damn well that Lisa would make it known that harm should NEVER come to Adonis, any theories that the Shadow Horde is somehow behind things are out of your mind. Lisa’s speculations for you are squashed as well.

“See, the enemy is trying to sew the seeds of mistrust. The old divide and conquer, well to hell with that, they fucked up big time with this clumsy assassination attempt. That’s it we’re mobilizing every fucking thing we got, we’re pooling our resources and…”

You get another report while in the middle of your speech.

“SIR! THEY’RE ATTACKING DOWNTOWN!” a soldier shouts from the upstairs.

“Fuck!” you exclaim and rush to the scene.

When you arrive cultists are throwing home made bombs all over the damn place, some of them are purposely blowing themselves up.

“Aim for the goddamn explosives on their chests before they get close!” you order, while you engage in your own fighting from afar with your rifle. They’re coming like swarms of lemmings though and the body count is growing, monstrosities like the one that tried to kill you earlier are proving cover fire for the gibbering suicide cultists.

You need to get into a better position to do the maximum amount of damage, so you look for higher ground while Lisa directs from the street level. You enter one of the buildings and begin running up the stairs to get to the roof. In the process of the excitement, you notice something.

“Damn, I used to work in this building.”

After this brief thought of the past you make it to the roof, where upon you’re kicked in the face as soon as you exit the door, dropping your rifle.

“Good! I’m glad you avoided the assassins, I was hoping to finish you off myself.”

As you stand up, you see a nasty looking creature, with a hideous appearance.

“You’re going to pay for what you did to me, YOU turned me into this! With your lies and your assault! I was NORMAL until YOU came and ripped me from my protective sanctuary!”

You immediately know who this is.

“Owen?”
“Silence! I’m the High Priest! Owen DIED when you threw me into the blasted City! Do you know how much pain and sickness I suffered? How many years I wandered the streets of Zeropolis little more than an intelligent Feral? You realize how long it took me to get over the madness?”
“Well from where I’m standing I don’t think you’re quite over it.”
“Oh you’re wrong, quite wrong, when the Savior came, she brought clarity to us all. She will bring true order to this City, not the Horde and not the Legion, but the Children! For the Children ARE the future!”
“Yeah…and you say you got over the madness?”
“It doesn’t matter what you think! What matters is you’re going to pay for ALL your lies and treachery tonight! To me AND the Savior! YAAAAGH!”

Owen attacks you, which you narrowly dodge and trip him to the ground, he rolls out of the way and jumps back up.

“Owen, you really want to continue this exercise in futility?”

Owen attacks you again at which point you punch him in the face followed by a kick to his nuts. While he crumples to the ground you retrieve your rifle.

“Alright Owen, you know what happened last time…and trust me I WILL be shooting if you attack again, now what are the defenses of the Savior at the…”

Owen pathetically tries to grab the rifle from you, at which point you blast him in the head splattering his brains and skull all over the roof.

“Idiot.”

You grab Owen’s corpse and throw it on to the street battle below. His body lands in a bloody broken heap before some of the Glow Children. Upon seeing one of their top leaders dead, this is a great blow to their morale.

“YEAH, THAT’S ONE OF YOUR LEADERS DOWN, NOW GO TELL THE FUCKIN’ SAVIOR SHE’S NEXT!” you shout and begin sniping the ones in retreat.

After attempting to mop up the stragglers, the general report is that the Glow Children greatly expended a lot of their manpower in this last attack. It’s odd; it’s almost as if this “Savior” doesn’t really care about controlling the city at all, just destruction.

Lisa suggests an attack be made immediately before they can put up a suitable defense, she’s still upset about Adonis nearly being killed, but you’d like to at least regroup and mount an organized attack.
> You regroup
“We need to get our shit together first, look, we got people all over the damn place and wounded everywhere.” You say surveying the damage.
“You can’t be serious! We need to attack NOW! Or don’t you remember what they nearly did to our son?” Lisa exclaims.
“Christ Lisa, I’m aware of ALL the shit they’ve done! What I’m saying is we need to organize here, and not just throw people at them until something happens! I understand that’s the Shadow Horde way of doing things but…”

At this point Lisa slaps you, and while your skin is tough, it still manages to sting.

“Oh fuck you; if it hadn’t been for YOUR duplicity we wouldn’t even BE in this situation!”
“Look Lisa, we NEED to at least regroup. I’m sure that hospital is going to be their last stand and we can’t go in attacking half assed. We need to attack from all sides and cut off all avenues of escape so we don’t have to deal with guerilla hold outs after the main attack is over. We want to kill them ALL in one fell swoop; we don’t want the fucking Savior to escape to cause trouble later!”

After a little more debate, Lisa finally agrees and you quickly gather your troops and implement a plan while Lisa takes care of her own end of things. Within a couple days you’re ready, but Lisa still being strong willed sort she is, jumps the gun and begins before you.

“Goddamn it Lisa…”

The battle to the hospital is a slaughter on the Glow Children’s side. They still haven’t recovered from the battle of Downtown and they’ve been losing many to the Shadow Horde. The Zeropolis Legion doesn’t lose too many troops, though the Shadow Horde is taking a beating due to the fact that they’re taking the brunt of the Glow Children’s hospital defenses. That needn’t had been the case had Lisa not attacked so soon. By the time you make it to the hospital most of the heavy fighting has been done. Dead bodies of both Glow Children and the Shadow Horde are littering the streets. Lisa stands outside the hospital seemingly unconcerned.

“What the fuck Lisa? I told you to fuckin’ wait! You look like you lost your whole goddamn Horde trying to storm this hospital!”
“Who cares? If they aren’t strong enough to survive then they can die like the rest. They’re meant to serve me anyway, and the Glow Children MUST pay for what they nearly did to my son, no matter what the costs. Now go in and PROVE you’re a father by doing what needs to be done. Should be easy…I did most of the work for you.”

You shake your head trying to reason with Lisa’s recent volatile emotions, and head into the hospital with your own people. Sounds of battle are heard and body parts are all over the place. After a few shoot outs with the few wretched hold outs, you eventually track down the infamous Savior. Yet another old face that looks a lot different from when you last saw it.

A severely burned female cyborg attempting to fix up one of her Glow Children on an operating table throws her scalpel down in frustration when she realizes nothing more can be done and sees you enter the room.

“Mutants! Fucking goddamn back stabbing mutants…you’re no good for anything!” she shouts.
“Wow, AVA that’s a lot of emotion for a cyborg.” You say calmly.
“Let’s see how emotionless you remain when you see YOUR future destroyed before your eyes. This is all your fault! YOU caused all this! You did this to me!”
“Yeah, yeah, I’ve been getting that line from everyone lately. It’s getting old.”
“Fool. We would’ve brought unity to the world; mutants would’ve been incorporated too. All you had to do was help, but instead you betrayed us to those who hate you!”
“Yeah and that incorporation would’ve been the total loss of free will I’m sure. No thanks, I’d rather take my chances with some disjointed puny humans than an army of unified cyborgs.”
“Ah, of course. You mutants think YOU are fit to rule the world. Huh. You’re little better than humans. You still act on emotion rather than clarity. Look at your wife…she sacrificed hundreds of her own people who she claimed she looked after all for a mere child. Don’t look so surprised that I know about that act of total illogic, I could hear her screaming her rants of vengeance when I first saw her approach the hospital with her mutant rabble.”
“First of all she’s not my wife. And what about what you did? Are you saying sending in multitudes of brainwashed mutants was so different?”
”YES! Yes it was! My purpose was NOT based on emotion! I was trying to kill as many as mutants as possible! I had a clear goal! A clarity of purpose! What do I care what mutants died on who’s side? I am not one of them!”
“Uh…yeah. Well sounds pretty emotional to me. Sounds like good ol’ fashioned revenge. And I suppose those assassination attempts on me was just business to eh? Nothing personal?”

AVA shakes her head in dismay and looks up at the ceiling. Tears stream from her non-cybernetic eye.

“You’ll never understand mutant…it…it should’ve been us…we…I’m sorry Alex…I’m sorry my father…I have ended up like you…trapped and surrounded by my enemies with only death awaiting me…forgive me…”

Strangely, you almost feel sorry for AVA, putting her out of her misery is probably an act of kindness at this point. And so you do with a couple of well placed bullets.

“(Sigh) Well AVA, if it’s any consolation, you did a lot of damage to us, a lot of damage…”

When you exit, Lisa is still waiting outside, she looks like she’s deep in thought.

“Yeah, the Savior’s dead and from what I can tell so are all the other Glow Children as well as most of your Shadow Horde…” you say to Lisa
“Given the temporary mistrust both side had for each other, perhaps its for the best…perhaps this alliance needs to be dissolved and simply unified under one banner, one name, we are all mutants, no one is better than another, but we are all better than humans.”
“So what’re you saying exactly?”
“I’m saying we should be joined officially…with this latest annoyance out of the way, Zeropolis will soon be under our total control and then it will be time to handle the humans. I’m already a Queen, and you shall be my King and Adonis…shall be a Prince…heir to our new mutant dynasty.”

You’re a little surprised by this sudden suggestion

“Whoa! What the hell? You want us to get fuckin’ married?”
“Yes, do you not have feelings for me?”
“Well uh…yeah I guess…I mean…”
“Am I not the mother of your son?”
“Well of course.”
“Do you not see the wisdom in this action?”
“I suppose, but…”
“Then it’s settled…and be honest wouldn’t you like to be able to spend more time with your son? Spend more time with me…and be closer to you…”

Lisa’s manages to convince you in that way she does through her seductive embraces and strong commanding will. You swear she has some sort of mutant ability to control minds.

A festive wedding is soon held after the celebration of the Glow Children’s destruction.

Ten years pass…

Twenty years have passed and the unification of Zeropolis is complete. One City of unified mutants and you are their KING. What was once a warehouse has now been turned into a palace.

War against the humans is also in full swing. Lisa made sure that was the first thing on the agenda the moment Zeropolis was completely unified. The Combine wasn’t even prepared for the first few attacks, as entire towns were taken over with relative ease. Never before had mutants been so organized, and are now the greatest threats to them since the Cybernetic Evolution, worse even, since you can breed, and not just with other mutants…

The Combine and The Zero Dominion (That being its new name) fought for a long time, but The Combine lost mainly due to its own internal turmoil. After a couple years of your attacks the government collapsed and splintered into several factions. Some of those factions willingly surrendered to you. Human traitors were not unheard mainly because rule under The Combine was little better. It was a corrupt and decadent organization that bullied its citizens, while human subjects living under your occupation are treated fairly well as long as they know their place and they are certainly well protected from other humans like the outlaw scum who lurk in the wastelands. With the Combine completely destroyed, mutants now rule everything within the area ranging from towns to even the Ground Zero Shelters still containing their inhabitants. (Actually many of those genuinely thanked you for releasing them from those underground coffins! Lisa of course wasn’t surprised by the shoddy workmanship that went into most of them given that she used to work for the corporation)

Now eyes of conquest look ever further, but despite all this, you’re a relatively benevolent dictator.

Though Lisa often thinks you’re too lenient on the humans, and claims you must set a better example for Adonis who shall take over from you one day. Adonis is only a teenager, but has the arrogance of a god. The tests and training Lisa insists that he engage in continue, and have produced a superior specimen of mutanthood thus far. Already he is eager to shed the blood of humans, you sometimes have to tell him that he shouldn’t let something like that dominate his thoughts as it can lead to recklessness, but he’s very much like his mother despite the fact that you’ve had regular contact with him now.

Your daughter Venus on the other hand is different. She’s still young, but even now you can see that she will be a very dissimilar person than her brother. While you’d think Lisa would want to spend time with her own daughter, she still concentrates only on Adonis. Leaving you to take up that role, but even that is only minimal as Venus often prefers spending time by herself. She reminds you of…well you. Over the recent years, you’ve often wished you could spend time by yourself like you used to, but that’s a rare luxury nowadays…

But heavy is the head that wears the crown and you have a host of concerns as of late to attend to and they only stack up. Hell, you don’t even know where to begin anymore. You begin to wonder if any of this is even worth it. You know you’re better than humans, but is constant ongoing warfare REALLY what you want?
> You continue the war
You think back to when you first entered Zeropolis and how you hoped that you’d somehow be as lucky or as radiation resistant as your grandfather was when he witnessed nuclear blast tests back when he was in the army. As it turns out you were, well lucky that is, the radiation resistance came later.

During your entire stay in Zeropolis, you’ve always tried to do what you thought was best for you, but many times you’ve felt like you were railroaded into this path, and indeed sometimes you had little choice in some of your major decisions.

However, ultimately they were your choices and even you have to admit you’ve done far better than you could’ve expected. Lisa’s a better wife than you really could’ve hoped for before the bombs turned the world into nuclear ash, let alone after the bombs. You son Adonis is obviously going to be a fine ruler someday, he certainly has all the necessary traits and if Venus is as much like you as she appears to be, she’ll do just fine. Their future is what’s important, and as such you have come to the realization that making sure they have a great empire to rule is the best thing you can give them. Not just for them, but for their children as well. You finally understand Lisa’s dedication to conquest and why she’s always pushed you to be a little more enthusiastic about it.

Sure she gets a bit intense as far as the human thing sometimes, but that’s just part of her personality. You never quite understood why she’s exactly so obsessed on the whole mutant superiority thing (Whereas you just take it for granted that you’re better and just leave it at that) especially given that she herself has never even had contact with another one since her transformation. (You have though, one thing that always seem to get her hot is when you recount your time when you were doing raids on Combine town during your alliance with the Cybernetic Evolution) You’ve always had a strange sort of relationship with Lisa, but it is love though, a weird form of it, but love nonetheless.

People have been fighting wars and taking shit from others since the beginning of time, and from what you can tell they’re still doing it. All for various reasons. So your reasons are for love and family. There’s certainly more selfish and worse reasons.

After coming to this epiphany you finally have eliminated any lingering doubts and reservations about anything you’ve ever done or will do in the future. You immediately go find Lisa who’s watching Adonis train against one of the few former Shadow Horde mutants left. He’s managed to take the giant down with his bare hands too, not many can make that boast, let alone at the young age he has. When you arrive in the gym, Lisa approaches you.

“Well, I didn’t expect to see you until tonight. I know how you like to spend long periods of time by yourself… I always found that strange for someone in a position of leadership.”
“Not really Lisa, people who rule are often isolated, however I have come to the realization that I’m not alone. The future of our dynasty is important, I see that now and I’m going to ensure what we’ve built doesn’t end.”

You think it’s the first time you’ve seen overwhelming joy in Lisa’s face, but she immediately hugs and kisses you. You think this is also the first time you’ve actually heard her say “I love you.” to you. Adonis stops his training and wonders what’s going on and that’s when you turn your attention to him and point your finger directly at him.

“And YOU, you will be the next ruler! But if you want ANY chance of it, you’re going to have to beat the me first!”
“Hah! You’re kidding right? I just beat an Ex-Shadow Horde mutant with my bare hands! I can easily take you on old man!” he laughs.
“Think so? Show me what all your training has done then, don’t worry I’ll go easy on you, wouldn’t want to mess up that pretty face of yours, you sure you’re not my daughter?”
“You’re going down old man!”
“Not likely, now stop talking and hiding behind your mother’s skirt, mama’s boy!”

That one had the desired effect.

Unsurprisingly your minor taunts make Adonis angry causing him to charge at you hard and you immediately drop to the ground and trip him. When he falls on his face you grab his arm and twist it behind him while putting your knee in his back.

“See? You let yourself get too emotional and it threw off your game. You need to learn more about fighting than just the basics. I’ll make sure I’ll teach you that. Now get up.”

From that point on you take a more active role in training Adonis. Particularly in the more psychological and strategic aspects of it. He learns quickly, and in time learns to reign in the arrogance and some of his mother’s views on humans, but he always retains his desire to fight. In the years to follow he joins the Dominion army and quickly rises through the ranks. Lisa is very proud and you are as well.

As for Venus, she of course remains her usual quiet self, though she does surprise everyone when she later joins the Dominion army as well, as a scout though. She turns out to be an excellent sniper.

As always there is resistance, but for the most part the Zero Dominion only grows larger under your rule.

Thirty years pass…

Fifty years have gone by since you first set foot in Zeropolis and you’re eternally glad you did. It could’ve only been destiny that guided you to what you thought was most likely a death zone, only to turn out to be the place where you would achieve greatness.

You remember how humans used to shoot mutants on sight mainly to discourage them from venturing far from Zeropolis, but now mutants now control a vast portion of territory, their population has grown much much larger, and half-breed mutants from humans are in large numbers as well. A new era is being ushered in for a newly evolved being that will eventually replace humanity.

Never did you think that you’d actually live long enough to die peacefully in your own bed. But that’s what is occurring now, you feel the approach of death occurring and you have no regrets. Right now you’re surrounded by your family. Lisa, Adonis, Venus and their children as well. You can die knowing that you’ve made the world a better place for them.

You’ve made all of this happen and as you pass your throne to Adonis, while holding on to Lisa’s hand who sits by the side of the bed, you say your last words:

“I love you all and finish what I started, my children …”


“We need to get our shit together first, look, we got people all over the damn place and wounded everywhere.” You say surveying the damage.
“You can’t be serious! We need to attack NOW! Or don’t you remember what they nearly did to our son?” Lisa exclaims.
“Christ Lisa, I’m aware of ALL the shit they’ve done! What I’m saying is we need to organize here, and not just throw people at them until something happens! I understand that’s the Shadow Horde way of doing things but…”

At this point Lisa slaps you, and while your skin is tough, it still manages to sting.

“Oh fuck you; if it hadn’t been for YOUR duplicity we wouldn’t even BE in this situation!”
“Look Lisa, we NEED to at least regroup. I’m sure that hospital is going to be their last stand and we can’t go in attacking half assed. We need to attack from all sides and cut off all avenues of escape so we don’t have to deal with guerilla hold outs after the main attack is over. We want to kill them ALL in one fell swoop; we don’t want the fucking Savior to escape to cause trouble later!”

After a little more debate, Lisa finally agrees and you quickly gather your troops and implement a plan while Lisa takes care of her own end of things. Within a couple days you’re ready, but Lisa still being strong willed sort she is, jumps the gun and begins before you.

“Goddamn it Lisa…”

The battle to the hospital is a slaughter on the Glow Children’s side. They still haven’t recovered from the battle of Downtown and they’ve been losing many to the Shadow Horde. The Zeropolis Legion doesn’t lose too many troops, though the Shadow Horde is taking a beating due to the fact that they’re taking the brunt of the Glow Children’s hospital defenses. That needn’t had been the case had Lisa not attacked so soon. By the time you make it to the hospital most of the heavy fighting has been done. Dead bodies of both Glow Children and the Shadow Horde are littering the streets. Lisa stands outside the hospital seemingly unconcerned.

“What the fuck Lisa? I told you to fuckin’ wait! You look like you lost your whole goddamn Horde trying to storm this hospital!”
“Who cares? If they aren’t strong enough to survive then they can die like the rest. They’re meant to serve me anyway, and the Glow Children MUST pay for what they nearly did to my son, no matter what the costs. Now go in and PROVE you’re a father by doing what needs to be done. Should be easy…I did most of the work for you.”

You shake your head trying to reason with Lisa’s recent volatile emotions, and head into the hospital with your own people. Sounds of battle are heard and body parts are all over the place. After a few shoot outs with the few wretched hold outs, you eventually track down the infamous Savior. Yet another old face that looks a lot different from when you last saw it.

A severely burned female cyborg attempting to fix up one of her Glow Children on an operating table throws her scalpel down in frustration when she realizes nothing more can be done and sees you enter the room.

“Mutants! Fucking goddamn back stabbing mutants…you’re no good for anything!” she shouts.
“Wow, AVA that’s a lot of emotion for a cyborg.” You say calmly.
“Let’s see how emotionless you remain when you see YOUR future destroyed before your eyes. This is all your fault! YOU caused all this! You did this to me!”
“Yeah, yeah, I’ve been getting that line from everyone lately. It’s getting old.”
“Fool. We would’ve brought unity to the world; mutants would’ve been incorporated too. All you had to do was help, but instead you betrayed us to those who hate you!”
“Yeah and that incorporation would’ve been the total loss of free will I’m sure. No thanks, I’d rather take my chances with some disjointed puny humans than an army of unified cyborgs.”
“Ah, of course. You mutants think YOU are fit to rule the world. Huh. You’re little better than humans. You still act on emotion rather than clarity. Look at your wife…she sacrificed hundreds of her own people who she claimed she looked after all for a mere child. Don’t look so surprised that I know about that act of total illogic, I could hear her screaming her rants of vengeance when I first saw her approach the hospital with her mutant rabble.”
“First of all she’s not my wife. And what about what you did? Are you saying sending in multitudes of brainwashed mutants was so different?”
”YES! Yes it was! My purpose was NOT based on emotion! I was trying to kill as many as mutants as possible! I had a clear goal! A clarity of purpose! What do I care what mutants died on who’s side? I am not one of them!”
“Uh…yeah. Well sounds pretty emotional to me. Sounds like good ol’ fashioned revenge. And I suppose those assassination attempts on me was just business to eh? Nothing personal?”

AVA shakes her head in dismay and looks up at the ceiling. Tears stream from her non-cybernetic eye.

“You’ll never understand mutant…it…it should’ve been us…we…I’m sorry Alex…I’m sorry my father…I have ended up like you…trapped and surrounded by my enemies with only death awaiting me…forgive me…”

Strangely, you almost feel sorry for AVA, putting her out of her misery is probably an act of kindness at this point. And so you do with a couple of well placed bullets.

“(Sigh) Well AVA, if it’s any consolation, you did a lot of damage to us, a lot of damage…”

When you exit, Lisa is still waiting outside, she looks like she’s deep in thought.

“Yeah, the Savior’s dead and from what I can tell so are all the other Glow Children as well as most of your Shadow Horde…” you say to Lisa
“Given the temporary mistrust both side had for each other, perhaps its for the best…perhaps this alliance needs to be dissolved and simply unified under one banner, one name, we are all mutants, no one is better than another, but we are all better than humans.”
“So what’re you saying exactly?”
“I’m saying we should be joined officially…with this latest annoyance out of the way, Zeropolis will soon be under our total control and then it will be time to handle the humans. I’m already a Queen, and you shall be my King and Adonis…shall be a Prince…heir to our new mutant dynasty.”

You’re a little surprised by this sudden suggestion

“Whoa! What the hell? You want us to get fuckin’ married?”
“Yes, do you not have feelings for me?”
“Well uh…yeah I guess…I mean…”
“Am I not the mother of your son?”
“Well of course.”
“Do you not see the wisdom in this action?”
“I suppose, but…”
“Then it’s settled…and be honest wouldn’t you like to be able to spend more time with your son? Spend more time with me…and be closer to you…”

Lisa’s manages to convince you in that way she does through her seductive embraces and strong commanding will. You swear she has some sort of mutant ability to control minds.

A festive wedding is soon held after the celebration of the Glow Children’s destruction.

Ten years pass…

Twenty years have passed and the unification of Zeropolis is complete. One City of unified mutants and you are their KING. What was once a warehouse has now been turned into a palace.

War against the humans is also in full swing. Lisa made sure that was the first thing on the agenda the moment Zeropolis was completely unified. The Combine wasn’t even prepared for the first few attacks, as entire towns were taken over with relative ease. Never before had mutants been so organized, and are now the greatest threats to them since the Cybernetic Evolution, worse even, since you can breed, and not just with other mutants…

The Combine and The Zero Dominion (That being its new name) fought for a long time, but The Combine lost mainly due to its own internal turmoil. After a couple years of your attacks the government collapsed and splintered into several factions. Some of those factions willingly surrendered to you. Human traitors were not unheard mainly because rule under The Combine was little better. It was a corrupt and decadent organization that bullied its citizens, while human subjects living under your occupation are treated fairly well as long as they know their place and they are certainly well protected from other humans like the outlaw scum who lurk in the wastelands. With the Combine completely destroyed, mutants now rule everything within the area ranging from towns to even the Ground Zero Shelters still containing their inhabitants. (Actually many of those genuinely thanked you for releasing them from those underground coffins! Lisa of course wasn’t surprised by the shoddy workmanship that went into most of them given that she used to work for the corporation)

Now eyes of conquest look ever further, but despite all this, you’re a relatively benevolent dictator.

Though Lisa often thinks you’re too lenient on the humans, and claims you must set a better example for Adonis who shall take over from you one day. Adonis is only a teenager, but has the arrogance of a god. The tests and training Lisa insists that he engage in continue, and have produced a superior specimen of mutanthood thus far. Already he is eager to shed the blood of humans, you sometimes have to tell him that he shouldn’t let something like that dominate his thoughts as it can lead to recklessness, but he’s very much like his mother despite the fact that you’ve had regular contact with him now.

Your daughter Venus on the other hand is different. She’s still young, but even now you can see that she will be a very dissimilar person than her brother. While you’d think Lisa would want to spend time with her own daughter, she still concentrates only on Adonis. Leaving you to take up that role, but even that is only minimal as Venus often prefers spending time by herself. She reminds you of…well you. Over the recent years, you’ve often wished you could spend time by yourself like you used to, but that’s a rare luxury nowadays…

But heavy is the head that wears the crown and you have a host of concerns as of late to attend to and they only stack up. Hell, you don’t even know where to begin anymore. You begin to wonder if any of this is even worth it. You know you’re better than humans, but is constant ongoing warfare REALLY what you want?
> You stop it
You don’t really want this, you never really did. You feel like every decision you’ve ever made has either because you had no choice or because you felt influenced in some way. Well you’re in charge now and if you don’t want to wage an ongoing war with humans then you’re not going to!

You immediately call a halt to all further acts of aggression on human settlements. You say you’re going to concentrate on defending and holding on to what you have. Lisa isn’t too pleased with this decision. You argue that what is the point of it all since you’ve eliminated the greatest threat to mutants, while Lisa says as long as humans are around they’ll always be a threat to mutants. You’re not going to change your mind though; you’ve made your decision.

Adonis naturally feels like you’ve cheated him out his chance to prove himself in true battle against humans. In the years to follow he joins the Dominion army and entertains himself by being cruel to the human subjects. One day in a human settlement called Ashtown, he goes too far and one of them actually fights back. In the ensuing struggle Adonis’ face is hit by a small explosion, severely disfiguring his once relatively human looking appearance. Now all that is left is a horrific skinless face and little of his remaining sanity. In retaliation he orders the complete destruction of Ashotwn. When Lisa hears of this she wants even more vengeance and goes over your head as well to order the destruction of another town called Cinderville, by the time you can call a stop to any of this, both places have been razed to the ground and its inhabitants butchered.

Previously the humans under your rule were scared just enough not to start an uprising, some of them were even loyal, you always made sure never to be unnecessarily brutal even though Lisa and Adonis would prefer otherwise; so what occurs next isn’t too surprising to you. These events as well as the liberties Adonis has been taking, has pushed them over the realms of fear and into hatred. You begin to have uprisings, and guerilla attacks all over the Dominion, some of the more fanatical ones even launch suicidal attacks on targets in Zeropolis.

You do your best to try to stop the attacks while at the same time trying to still be fair to the humans, but the time for that is long gone. Instead the mutant citizens just think you’re being too weak.

More years go by and you’re getting assassination attempts by other mutants calling for your blood. Parts of the Dominion begin to splinter as you unsuccessfully attempt to hold everything together. It’s just like what happened to the Combine. Now you you’re forced to become brutal just to keep everyone in line for a few months, but it’s too late, now nobody likes you, not even your family which has been apparent for quite some time, but one time it goes to the point of no return.

One night while you’re brooding to yourself in your private chambers, Adonis shows up before you with his own personal guards. You can’t say you didn’t see this coming as well.

“Old man you are no longer fit to rule the Zero Dominion! I’m taking over!”
“You think you are...you’re mother will be the one really running shit, because as far as I can tell you’re barely capable of staging a coup.”
“SHUT UP! KILL HIM!” Adonis screams.

You might be older, but you’re still relatively quick. You dodge for cover as Adonis’ guards attempt to kill you. You pull your own weapon and with your usual deadly accuracy you blast every one of them, though Adonis has managed to sneak around behind you at this point. Being dramatic is his downfall as he attempts to slit your throat, but you manage to grab his arm and break it, before he can. He falls to the ground clutching his arm.

“Stupid ass kid, don’t bring a knife to a gun fight!” you say standing up.
“Yeah, and don’t talk when you have the advantage, old man!” Adonis retorts and a blade from his boot suddenly appears as he kicks up at your stomach, impaling you with it.
“Fuck!”

You quickly dislodge yourself from the blade and stagger a bit before dropping your pistol. Adonis takes the advantage and side kicks you in the face, this time taking out one of you eyes. Oddly you don’t even feel the pain; in fact you’re beginning to feel pretty numb to everything right now.

“Mom always said you were weak.”
“Yeah, well I’m not the one who’s the mama’s boy…I think you should call her, you need all the help you can get.”

This little taunt throws Adonis off his game and he charges at you. You drop to the floor and trip him. When he falls face first to the ground you immediately shove your knee in his back and break his other arm.

“Sorry son, but your name is Adonis, not Oedipus and you ain’t gonna be killing me.”

And with that last statement you snap his neck.

Now you start to feel the pain of your wounds, you’ve lost quite a bit of blood, but you’d probably be able to survive if you had the chance to get to the doctor, but you know you aren’t going to get that chance.

Lisa walks in with pistol in hand, and at this point you don’t even want to stop her even if you were in a position to do so.

“You killed my poor son, he would’ve ruled…”
“Think of it this way, now you can eliminate the middle man and just rule directly, just like you’ve always wanted, just like you did with the Shadow Horde…(groan) I think I’ll just rest here for awhile. Yeah that’s better.”
“You’re going to die for what you’ve done!”
“Yeah, I kind of figured that, look I don’t care anymore, don’t you see that? It’s been nothing but a fucking headache anyway. …now if you’re going to shoot, you go ahead, or just let me bleed to death because I just don’t care anymore.”

Lisa looks genuinely upset, and you don’t think it’s solely over Adonis. Even after thinking you’re unfit to rule or be her husband anymore, she’s still reluctant to kill you.

“Goddamn it, what happened to you? Why couldn’t you have just done what I wanted? To create a dynasty to last forever!”
All I ever wanted was to live a peaceful life, well that didn’t happen for a variety of reasons, but I guess I can say it wasn’t boring. And there was the fact that I did get to meet you…Lisa don’t prolong this, just do it. It’ll be easier for all of us. Tell Venus I love her as much as I still love her mother.”

Lisa sheds a few tears and then carries out your request.

Soon after your death Lisa takes over the Zero Dominion and does a much better job than you or Adonis could’ve ever done. In the years to follow, she restores order and quells all rebellions. She might’ve even brought in further territory had she not been assassinated by Venus, who always stayed quiet and in the background plotting and waiting for the right moment to strike. Strangely Venus never took over; instead she left Zeropolis and the Dominion altogether, letting it collapse into multiple civil wars until it destroyed itself.

Where she wound up is unknown, but being her father’s daughter, it was probably someplace quiet and isolated.