Tainted: The Beginning

Back at the MOON headquarters, Elliott prepared for the next mission. As he put on his boots and fastened the equipment on his suit, Leon entered the room. "What's going on?" Leon asked, looking at Elliott confused. "Didn't you hear about the mission? Apparently we're suppose to go to a city located somewhere in the ocean. Matt knows where it is. He's gonna be taking us," Elliott explained as they walked out of the room and approached stairs, leading up to the roof. On the roof awaited Matt and his helicopter. "I see," Leon said. "This sounds interesting." They both made it into the helicopter and fastened themselves into their seats . "All right," Matt said. "Ready?" Elliott and Leon both said "Yes." The helicopter took off and started forward out to the ocean.

About an hour later, they arrived at the location. "Well, this is it," Matt said. "It is?" Elliott replied and looked out of the window. "But All I see is water." Matt grinned and said "I know." Matt lowered the helicopter down and Leon slid the side doors open. "Okay. Get ready to jump," Matt said. Elliott and Leon looked at each other and Elliott shrugged. "Try to keep up," Elliott said and jumped off into the ocean. "He didn't just go there," Leon said to himself and jumped behind him. As Leon landed in the ocean, a submarine floated up to the water. Leon climbed the submarine. Elliott climbed up behind him and Leon opened the hatch on the submarine and looked inside, "Ladies first" Leon laughed, Elliott jumped into the hatch and looked up to Leon, "Very clever. And original too." Leon followed into the hatch and closed the door. The submarine began to sink into the ocean from whence it came. Inside the submarine was a typical crew manning their positions and doing their jobs. One of the crew members walked up to Leon and Elliott and saluted. "Good day sirs, My captain wishes to speak to you about your mission. He has ordered me to take you to him immediately." Leon and Elliott nodded and followed the young man to their captain who seemed a bit too old to be working underwater. He had a tan uniform with many impressive awards pinned to it and he had a sluggish look to him. The captain was shouting out orders left and right when Leon and Elliot walked up. "Good to see you lads. I wanted to tell you that we will lose some communication when your inside the city, and your diving gear is in the bunker behind you. Please put them on as we will be at the city momentarily." Leon and Elliott just nodded and began to put on their diving equipment. After that they headed to the hatch that they entered on and waited for the signal. "All right, guys. We're right next to the city. You should have air inside the main temple. Head there and get inside as soon as you can. We will be outside when your ready to leave. All right. Here we are. Ready when you are." Leon grabbed the hatch and began to twist. The door gave away to massive amounts of water. One by one, they exited the submarine to gaze upon an entire city ruins under the ocean. The sun shined a bright light onto the main temple. The captain spoke about. "We should head to the temple. Let's go," Leon said over his mic. Leon and Elliott began to swim through the ruined city. They could see old jars and houses everywhere. Elliott had an eerie feeling about the place as they headed to the temple. There was a huge opening at the bottom of the temple. Elliott saw Leon already heading inside. Elliott quickly followed after. As Elliott rose higher and higher he eventually hit air and took off his mask. "Leon? You in here?" Nothing. No response. Elliott began to wonder if he just imagined Leon entering. Suddenly the room began to light with fire. Leon was shown standing with a lighter near a torch, "Apparently we have light," Leon said. Elliott rose from the water onto solid stone. The inside of the temple was like that of an Egyptian pyramid, but hollow. Elliott looked forward in awe. "What? What are you looking at?" Leon turned around to see a mountain of crystals in all sorts of colors shining brightly, but there were two pillars in the middle of the room holding one crystal each. Leon began to walk towards the pillar. "HQ, this is Leon. I think I found something, Some sort of crystal, There's hundreds maybe thousands here." Elliott walked up to Leon and stared at the crystal near Leon. "It's purple, and now maroon?" Elliott said amazed. "Leon, that crystal is changing color!" Leon slowly reached out his hand and took the crystal into it. "It's amazing," Leon said. Then he suddenly fell to the floor in pain. The crystal began to absorb into his skin. "Leon!' Elliott yelled out. "Hold on! Maybe this crystal reverses what that one does!" Elliott reached out to a pure white crystal that shined very brightly. As he took it into his hand, it absorbed into his hand as well. Elliott shook in pain and looked at Leon from the ground. Leon was standing with his back turned on Elliott. His whole body had smoke steaming off it. Inside the smoke were dark pulses of what looked like electricity, but with a purple maroon mix inside it. "There is no Leon," he said in a dark voice.

Elliott approached Leon slowly. "Leon," Elliott said again. "C'mon. Talk to me. You okay? You look-"

"I'm fine," Leon interrupted. "Let's get going. We need to bring these crystals back to HQ." Leon slowly walked off. Elliott followed him. Leon said "Hey. Wasn't this place underwater?" They both hopped down into the hole which was once compiled with water. They saw a light in the tunnel. "Hey," Elliott said. "Why are we doing a MOON mission in broad daylight? Isn't that usually SUN's job?" (SUN: Society Under Negotiations) They approached the tunnel's exit until a silhouette of a man stood in the middle of it. Elliott whispered to Leon "It's Von." Von walked into the tunnel with a bunch of soldiers from SUN following him. They were all pointing their rifles at Leon and Elliott. Von was a very tall man. Very muscular and athletic. He had tan dress pants with combat shoes. His hair was cut short and blonde. His eyes were a hazel color and his shirt was a tucked-in white tank top. "What's all this?" Leon said. "It appears to MOON that you have taken the crystals for yourselves which makes you our biggest threat right now," Von said in a strangely evil way. "but we'll be taking the rest of the crystals from here." Von pointed his hand in Elliott And Leon's direction. "But I don't understand. What the hell can these crystals do that makes them such a threat?" Von just laughed and ordered the men to move forward, The SUN soldiers began to walk towards Elliott and Leon. "Stand back, Elliott," Leon said with no emotion and smiled deviously. Suddenly his eyes began to blacken. All you could see was an eclipse of black in his eyes. The soldiers stopped moving. All the sudden Leon ran towards one of the soldiers, grabbed the barrel of his rifle and started bending it upward and back towards him. Von looked at Leon in amazement and backed up. "Fire!" he ordered. All the SUN soldiers started shooting at Leon, but he ran at one man and punched him to the wall, as he dodged the other soldier's bullets. He then punched at another soldier, making him fall to the ground. The last three remaining soldiers got scared, but kept shooting. Elliott was watching this while it happened. Leon rushed at the next soldier and picked him up by one hand, throwing him towards Von. Elliott contacted Matt on his intercom. "We haven't received any orders to come pick you up yet. What's going on?" Matt said. "MOON sold us out to SUN! We need out of here ASAP!"

"On my way," Matt said. Meanwhile, Von ran deeper into the tunnel and disappeared. Leon dashed at the last soldier and choked him, holding him by the neck against the wall. He held his neck crushing it, the soldier slowly stopped moving. Leon let go of the man and he fell to the ground. Elliott walked towards the tunnel and looked at Leon. "We need to go. Now," he said. Leon and Elliott ran out of the tunnel and saw Matt in his helicopter flying towards them. "Come on," Matt said. "Get on." Matt lowered a latter and Leon jumped onto the latter making his way to the helicopter. Then Elliott jumped and caught the helicopter's handle bar, and the helicopter flew off. Matt looked at them. Leon sat in his seat leaning his arms on his thighs, looking down to the floor. Elliott stared at him. "Leon....what was that back there?" Still looking to the floor, Leon replied "I don't know. That crystal did something to me. And if it did, it must've done something to you too." Elliott looked at his hands. Nothing different, except he seemed paler than usual. "I don't feel different." Elliott said. "Yeah? Well, I do!" Leon shouted They both stood quiet for a moment. Matt looked back at Elliott with confusion in his eyes, "You said MOON set you up for SUN. I'm guessing that means your the supposed threat now, and that would make me an accomplice. So where to?" Elliott looked up at Matt in desperation "Anywhere that MOON doesn't know of." he said. Matt turned around in his seat facing the controls and said "I think I know a place."

Meanwhile back at the temple, Von stood over the mountain of crystals. " Amazing. With this I could make an army," he said to himself. Von walked towards the pillars and began to dust them off. "Hello. What's this?" Von looked into a small crevice and saw a small crystal with two different colors. One pure white and the other purple with maroon. "I think I'll test this one out," Von said as he began to reach out his hand for the crystal...

* * *

Matt's helicopter began to land in a small field next to a tiny house that seemed almost made of metal. "We are here, guys," Matt said landing the helicopter on a small heliport. "Let's get out and dispose of this helicopter before MOON tracks it to us." Leon and Elliott unbuckled their seat belts and began to get out of the helicopter. Matt was standing outside with his helmet off and around his arm. For the first time in a long time, Leon had seen Matt's actual face not covered by a helmet with a visor. Matt had short brown hair and gray eyes. He had a slim toned body and was wearing a brown pilot outfit. "You guys coming? I've got an RPG in the house. Don't ask how I got it." he said. Elliott and Leon followed Matt into the house. The house seemed messy, but as we followed him down a secret passage underneath the house, they walked down stairs until they got to the bottom into a room filled with MOON mercenary supplies and equipment mixed with everyday household items. "Make yourselves at home," Matt said gladly, and opened up a long and medium sized suitcase. There was a small RPG in it. Matt took out the RPG and loaded it with a rocket. "I'll be right back," he said and walked back upstairs. Elliott and Leon placed each other on a rugged leather couch that looked torn up a little. Elliott looked at Leon. "We'll need to stay low for a bit. Until then I think-"

"I'm going out," Leon said flatly. Elliott stared at him. Suddenly a loud boom made the house shake slightly. "Fine, but don't do anything stupid. We can't forget about that incident with SUN back at the city," Elliott said ignoring the loud boom. "Let me stay low in my way, and you stay low in your way," Leon said. "I'm going out." Matt appeared walking down the stairs engulfed in smoke. "Well, that takes care of that problem," he said. Leon got up from the couch and walked passed Matt without any words. Matt looked back at him. Elliott got up to follow him, but Matt stopped him and shook his head. "Let him go out for a bit. He needs space," Matt suggested. Elliott walked back down the first step he took to follow Leon and went back to the couch. "I'll go fix up some grub," Matt said, throwing the remote control to the TV to Elliott. Across from the couch sat a TV on a table. "Find something on the tube for now." Elliott began to turn on the TV and started to flip the channels.

Leon walked on until he came to the closest city he could find. He then began to walk on the sidewalk in the city. Cars flew by as he walked with his hands in his pockets and his elbows out. "Stop! Thief!" a young woman's voice shouted in the air. Leon looked around and saw a tall woman shouting and pointing at a mugger running away with her purse. "Help!" she yelled. Leon took off after the mugger. "Get your ass back here!" he yelled. The mugger turned the corner and Leon took an alleyway. The mugger looked backwards and saw no one. Leon took a left in the alley and saw the mugger. Suddenly the mugger is pulled in the alleyway by Leon and thrown into a wall. The mugger fell to the ground after he hit the brick wall, somehow cracking it. Leon's eyes blackened again. "Let go of the purse," Leon said with a little anger. "Unless you want to have brick wall for lunch." The mugger got off the ground. Leon punched him in the stomach, causing him to fall back down. Leon then picked him up and threw him against the wall again, still holding him and slammed him to the ground. The mugger got up fast and tried to run again, but Leon pointed his palm at the mugger and said "No, you don't." Suddenly a ball of dark, black, shadowy material formed in the palm of his hand and shot at the mugger. The ball hit the mugger in the back and began burning him with darkness. Leon stopped and looked at what he'd done. "How did I?" The mugger laid there as he died, deteriorating. Leon grabbed the purse and began walking out of the alley towards the woman. She was wearing a leather coat and had long blonde hair. She had leather gloves on and was staring at Leon as if he looked incredibly different. "I managed to get your belongings, Mrs," Leon said, handing the lady her purse. "It's Amy," she said kindly. "Just call me Amy. And what happened to the mugger?" Leon looked back and scratched his head as he said "He, uh. He got away, I guess." Amy looked disappointed and realized it was starting to rain. "Well, I better get going, Mr." Leon was too busy thinking about what had happened that he lost his train of thought and did not hear what Amy had said. "Oh, um...I don't know," Amy laughed and began to walk off. "See you later then, whoever you are," she said. Leon turned around and began to walk back towards the mugger, inside the alley was nothing but a smothering shadow that began to disappear. "I can't tell Elliott about this."

* * *

"Hey," Matt said surprised. "I found some pizza from yesterday." Elliott looked away from the TV to look into the doorway that Matt went in earlier. "Okay. That's fine-." Elliott spotted a stone in some pile of equipment that Matt had in the room. As he got up and approached the stone, it looked more like a gem. It was gray with a foggy look to it. Elliott looked back at Matt in the kitchen and then grabbed the stone. He then put it in his bag and sat back on the couch. "So do you have anyone living here with you?" Elliott said in curiosity, Matt turned around facing Elliott with an emotionless face, "They used to. Everyone's gone now," Matt said in a low voice. Elliott could see Matt was upset and quickly changed the conversation. "You got good reception on this TV. Lets see if we made headlines," Elliott said as he began to flip through channels looking for the news as Matt turned away uninterested. Elliott felt bad and stood up facing Matt, "Look. I'm sorry. I didn't know. Really. I didn't mean to upset you," Elliott said desperately, trying to apologize. Matt walked out and handed Elliott a plate with a microwaved, warmed-up Pizza. "Enjoy," Matt said as he began to walk upstairs towards outside. "Great. So one completely freaks out and goes berserk and the other gets depressed and walks outside, leaving me with pizza. Elliott said as he plunged into the couch that sat behind him.

Leon kept walking past the trees and hills. He had left the city and got lost in the plains. "So many freaking hills and trees. I have no idea where the hell I am," Leon said getting frustrated. As he was walking, a small woman caught his eye. She was very short, had a black dress on, almost looking like a witch. Her face was pale and her eyes were dark green. Leon was lost and thought she might know the area, so he proceeded to walk up to her and ask for directions. "Excuse me, miss I-" Leon was cut short. The woman looked at him with an eager expression. "Your lost and seek your friends, Elliott and Matt." Leon looked in amazement. "How did you know that?" he said. The woman began walking away from him. "Come with me. Let us get out of this rain. My cabin is on that hill. We can talk inside." Leon thought to himself that it was strange. He could have sworn that cabin wasn't there before, and who was this woman? How did she know so much? Leon followed behind with many questions in hand. The woman stepped into the small cabin and Leon followed after. The inside of the cabin was lit by many candles. There were assortments of strange items and trinkets inside her house. In the middle was a table with some writing carved into it. "Nice, uh, Place you got here," Leon said as he looked around and moved slowly trying not to knock over anything. "Leon, please sit at the table for I have something to tell you." she said. Leon looked and found a chair next to the table, He slid the chair out and sat down. In front of him was the lady sitting across from him. "You have so much to do Leon, and you don't even know it." The woman said with glee. "Look. I just want to get out of here and find my friends, and what are you talking about?" Leon said confused enough. The lady chuckled and ripped a piece of Leon's clothing off and quickly took it for herself. "Hey! What the hell, lady? That was my shirt!" Leon shouted with anger now. "Leon, listen to me. This is very important. MOON and SUN no longer matter. I'm here to tell you the truth. You will see me three times in your lifetime. You must not tell anyone of me or what I'm about to tell you," The woman said in a serious tone. Leon stood shocked and confused. "Leon, you will become this world's Harbinger of Death." Leon stood from the table and yelled "That's ludicrous! I'm just Leon, and I'm certainly no Bringer of Death," Leon said with fury in his voice. "Oh, but you are, aren't you? Just look at what happened today in the alley. That mugger deserved what he got, didn't he, Leon? Well, let me tell you. That woman's fate stays the same as yours. As for Elliott, you can change his future right now but it will be too late. If you keep on this path." Leon was just baffled by everything she said. "You, I... You have no proof of any of this and your just a stalker." Leon said and began to walk towards the door of the cabin, " When you walk outside, you will be at Matt's hideout. Matt will be standing in the front of the house, staring at you and that's when the darkness will come," the lady said. Leon raced outside and looked around. It was indeed as the woman had said. He saw Matt in front of the house looking at him, Leon turned around to look at the lady's house but it wasn't there. Matt began to shout "It's Von!" Leon looked back at a black silhouette of the man known as Von walking towards him. "Hello, Leon. I think it's time we have a talk."