5 Betrayal and Power

Making the last move necessary, I gave a small smile to my opponent, "And that's checkmate, Sasha," I said and my opponent, a tall-ish blonde woman who quickly spoke with a Russian accent with an aggravated face.

"How?! You must be cheating, Adam!" she responded and I just shrugged.

Shaking my head, I stood up and brushed off the suit I was wearing, "You know the rules of chess as much as I do, Sasha. You know I wasn't cheating. Just better than you," I gave her one last smile before going to move passed her when she grabbed my sleeve, stopping me in my track. I looked down to see her looking up at me with expectant blue eyes.

"You won't stay the night?" she asked, seemingly lonely and disappointed, before she stood up and placed a hand on my chest, "I can make it worth your while, Adam. You know that much," she gave a husky chuckle and I just looked down at her.

"Mhm, I guess I could be persuaded, Sasha," I said before leaning in and giving her a kiss. She responded to my kiss with as much enthusiasm as usual...no, maybe with a bit more than usual.

But I knew why - she knew what was about to happen...and that saddened me greatly.

Just as we were stepping up our intensity, I pulled a stiletto knife from behind. A long thin knife...and I plunged it into her side. She pulled back with a gasp, some blood already coming out of her mouth as I'd stabbed through one of her lungs to get to her heart. She looked at me...but there no betrayal in her eyes. Only sadness and disappointment.

"I...I at least thought you'd pleasure me before you took me out, Adam," she said in between a laugh and a cough, more blood coming up her throat and out her mouth.

Leaning forward, I put my forehead against hers as I replied, "If I did that, Sasha, I wouldn't have been able to continue with my plan," I gave a wry smile and she scoffed, smiling back.

...This isn't the usual conversation someone would be having with their murderer but somehow, I suspect that Sasha knew I'd kill her tonight. Yet...she didn't try and stop me or try to kill me to save herself. No poisoned wine. No nerve gas that she'd already drank the antidote for. Nothing. Just a game of chess and some vodka.

"You...and your fucking plans, Adam...what did I say about them? They're...really the most...unattractive...thing...about you..." as she finished saying this, I felt a knife slip into my own side just as Sasha went limp.

Dead. But she still managed to get the last attack in.

I sardonically chuckled to myself, closing my eyes as I remembered joining this organization six years ago. The day after that is when I met Sasha. My first teacher. She taught me advanced CQC and knife handling. She was also the first woman I'd ever romantically loved...though you wouldn't be able to tell by what I just did, would you? Probably not.

This is just who I am. A cold...thing, that can cast away emotions for his stupid little plans. Sighing, I picked up Sasha and planted a kiss on her forehead before placing her down on her bed.

Once I'd done that, I looked down at where she'd stabbed me. A harmless attack. It missed my organs, blood vessels and just went through flesh. Closing my eyes and clenching my fist, I reached up to the knife and pulled it out without even a single flinch.

...Why didn't you go for a bigger attack, Sasha? Would it be stupid of me to think that? Yes, probably. I'm still alive because of her mercy...but I didn't want her mercy. I wanted her to scream and shout at me, to call me a traitor and to hate me. Not joke at me and treat me like her lover still.

What...what an idiot we both are, huh, Sasha?

Opening my eyes, I put adequate pressure on my side injury and exited Sasha's room so she could rest in peace. When I made it far enough down the corridor, I brought out my phone and opened my contacts and clicked on a contact that was named 'Goodbye', calling it. What followed was dozens of mini-explosions rocking through the base I was currently in, blowing up rooms left and right but avoiding any of the rooms I was around right now.

With the exception of Sasha's. She's wanted to be cremated anyway.

I pushed down the pain of just killing someone I held quite dear, knowing I did it for my own good more than anything, before I made my way to the lab of this place. While on my way, I sent out a text to multiple assassins I'd lined up and sent them after their targets - high-ranking members of the D'Angelo Organization.

Why was I doing all of this? What was the point? Easy. I was leaving the Organization and without doing this much, I'd be followed to the ends of the Earth by them trying to draw me back in or kill me seeing as I know too many secrets.

So, I can't just cripple the Organization. I need to break it down into itty-bitty pieces and sell them off to other gangs so it can't come after me.

I wish that it hadn't come to this. But it had. And I wasn't one to sway away from doing what needs to be done. If only Sasha wasn't so loyal to D'Angelo I could've probably convinced her to join me.

But alas...that wasn't the case.

...At least I can find some semblance of hope in the possibility that there's a world where I never left the Organization and instead stayed with Sasha. At least she didn't die there...and infinity other parallel universes.

But that isn't the course for me. Maybe one day I'll have the power to change things...but even then I doubt I'd be the same man I am today by then, so it's a useless hope.

Sighing, I finally made it to the laboratory. Putting in my credentials, the doors shot open and I saw the pristine lab I'd been working in for the last few months.

Manipulating D'Angelo to get the technology I needed wasn't hard when I promised him a squad of elite bodyguards that had superpowers. I'd already proven that correct by showing I can awaken Metagenes with my procedure. Granted you need a Metagene to be able to awaken one and only 14% of people have one. But with his resources, he'd be able to find them in no time.

Which is why I staged this attack today, a month before he brought in the first batch.

Taking out his organization right now required multiple years of cautious planning and rigorous preparation. Which would all be flushed down the drain if he had a personal army of Metahumans.

Why was I here? To awaken my Metagene, of course.

The first thing I did was strip the top half of my attire off as I looked at where Sasha had stabbed me. It was still bleeding but not nearly as much as it should be - no doubt due to what could be considered my peak human healing ability. Something I'd gained through experiments and a specific and very healthy diet.

Seeing that it was okay, I began typing into a nearby computer, activating the Metagene Awakening Chamber.

Basically, the Metagene Awakening Chamber or MAC as I call it, is, surprise surprise, a chamber you stand in while you have your Metagene awakened. If you have one, that is. If you don't, nothing will happen and you'll have just been standing in a chamber naked for no reason.

As I began inputting the key words for the machine to start up, I picked up a rag and held it against my side.

Once I heard the machine whirring to life, I pulled a chair over and sat down while I waited for it to ready itself. While I was doing that, I leaned into the chair, squeezing at my side and stopping the little bit of blood flow that was still flowing. I closed my eyes and sighed, bringing my free hand up to rub my eyes.

I was feeling grief for a person I killed. How far I've fucking fallen, huh?

Though said grief is effecting me somewhat like how the grief from mother's death effected me during that fight on the day of her death. Against the man who's neck and throat I crushed into mush.

I was in shock then. I'm somewhat in shock now.

I didn't realize at the time because of the grief and overwhelming feelings...but I wasn't in the right state of mind that night. Even after beating my knuckles bloody on a hospital wall, I didn't wrap my knuckles for the fight. I didn't care about my well-being. Or rather, I didn't stop to think about my body's well-being.

I was simply going through the motions in auto-pilot on that day and that could've led to a mistake that couldn't ended my life or put me in the hospital.

So, to avoid the chances of that happening right now, I calmed myself. I'd killed Sasha and I'd have to live with that. But I couldn't let it impede me right now nor could I allow myself to enter any form of shock. I needed to be cold-hearted for now. Clear, focused and determined.

Breathing in and out, I opened my eyes as I heard the beep of the machine signaling that it's ready.

Getting up, I drop the rag on the desk before unbuttoning my pants and walking over to the MAC. When I was there, I began tapping away on the keypad and settings pad as I kicked off my shoes.

Once it was all set and ready to be activated, I took off my pants and underwear before getting into the MAC. When I was inside the door locked behind me and hissed as it purified the air, killing any bacteria or pathogens that might have followed me in.

Then, two vents above me opened up and began spraying a mist-like gas into the chamber.

Knowing what to do, I lifted my arms up and braced myself against the chamber and took in deep breath after deep breath. Each time my body wanted me to cough but I forced that instinct down and continued breathing it in. This gas was the key to unlocking the Metagene - a sort of air-borne retrovirus that finds the Metagene in a human and begins to assist in it's awakening before helping spread the effects all over the body.

Not only is it safer than a natural awakening, it also results in slightly stronger powers than it usually would have. Someone with pyrokinesis would be able to control more flames than a naturally awakened pyrokinetic. Though sometimes it depends on the power they would naturally awaken with.

Say if naturally awakened they'd be able to control 5 basketball-sized fireballs, they'd be able to control 10 basketball-sized fireballs through the MAC. But a naturally awakened person could control more if their Metagene was just more powerful.

It was the best I could do. Not for D'Angelo's Metahuman army or anything but for myself. I had no clue what type of power my Metagene would give me but with this whole procedure I could at least know it'd be more powerful than it normally would be.

Finally, I felt the change come.

It started off as a small tingling sensation throughout my body. Like I was becoming hyperactive or something. Then the tingling became a flow of heat that flooded through my body.

From muscle to muscle, joint to join, flooding through them.

I didn't feel any pain. Just uncomfortable as I felt my musculature morphing and twisting alongside my tendons, ligaments and joints. I felt my bones shifting a little but compared to what was happening with my muscles and tendons, it was very minor.

Soon the heat became a burning. Like being in a bathtub where the water is just a little too hot or when you don't wait for a hot drink to cool down enough. It hurts somewhat but it's not incredibly painful. It's just...uncomfortable. Cracks and pops rang throughout my body and I felt lucky I'd braced myself against the glass because my knees gave out somewhat as the burning passed through them.

It went through my body, changing my biology. Making me a Metahuman. I'd officially taken my next step into power.

Slowly, the burning and the heat stopped and so did the Metagene activating gas pouring into the chamber. Which left me just feeling the changes.

...And I felt wonderful. Physically, at least.

The power that flowed through my body was incredible. Many times stronger than how I was before this. Which means a lot seeing as I was at peak human-levels of strength before this procedure.

My eyes narrowed for a second as I realized I didn't feel the stinging in my side anymore. Looking down at it, I saw that the small cut was completely healed.

A healing factor, maybe? Probably a secondary power to support my main one. Which would be...

I pressed against the glass door in front of me before really giving it a good push, and it flew off it's hinges. Granted, it wasn't made to withstand that much pressure but it was still something. Before now I'd definitely have had trouble breaking it down.

Stepping out of the MAC, I walked down the metal step ladders and put my foot on the floor. I was thinking I'd crack the floor when I stepped on it but I had...a surprisingly amount of control on the strength I put out. Narrowing my eyes at this and knowing I'd have to experiment more on this later, I began to re-dress myself before I walked to the side and picked up a device. It was a cylinder with a handle on it and I clicked it open to see a compartment roughly shaped like an arm.

Putting my arm in it and closing the lid, it molded around my arm before it started to cut into my flesh and arm, taking tissue samples to run tests on.

Skin, hair, nerve tissue, blood, blood vessels, muscle tissue, bone and bone marrow - it took a bits and pieces of all of them and stored them before it began to run tests on them. I needed to know as much about my new power as possible and this machine was the first step to doing that, especially with the short time I had right now to get it all done.

Once it had taken the tissue samples, it let my arm go and pulled my arm free. There were bits of blood on my arm but no wounds.

Healing factor it is then. Along with super strength. That's all I'd found however. I need to get back to my personal lab to run more tests.

And with that, I picked up the case running the tests, walked over to the computer and uploaded a computer and data-bank destroying virus that would wipe all my contributions to the Metagene army out of existence and effectively take away the blue prints for the MAC and the Metagene activating gas...could call that MAG, right? Yeah, MAG. So, what's left of the organization won't be able to do anything like making a Metahuman army.

Enzo D'Angelo is dead. I killed him before I went to play chess with Sasha. The assassins I've hired have no doubt took out most, if not all, of the remaining high-ranking members of the D'Angelo Organization...so I won't have too many problems from now on. Especially with my dig team telling me that they'd found the specimen I'd read about in that ancient book.

But before all that, I had to leave.

So after I made sure everything had been wiped from everywhere, I exited the room and dialed another number on my phone. The laboratory blew up shortly afterwards.

Now, to the my personal laboratory. Then, after figuring out the extent of my powers, I can go and break into whatever vault in America is holding the leftovers of the Super Soldier serum they gave my father, Deathstroke.

Scowling in annoyance, I shook my head as I realized I was more like him than I wanted to admit.

Alas, I still kept walking down this dark road...and I wouldn't stop.