“Irony”

A/N: Yeah, this prequel to my other oneshot Fate is total suckish, and really does not live up to its successor. Please try to bear through this short crap, I hope it isn't as bad as I feel it is.

Irony is quite the odd thing. It is a twist within something that in a way contradicts it, like how one could create something and then destroy it. In simplest terms, irony is the circumstance of opposites canceling one another out. As I look back on the entire situation, I realize how much irony did play a part in everything that led to the end of the world.

I remembered how everything started from the moment I got off of the shuttle, walking out onto the street as the train lifted into the sky through the use of hover plates and flew off on an electric path through Washington, D.C. I walked out onto the street as people stole some glances at me, only a few managed to pinpoint my face with a name. But I barely cared. I knew that soon enough my face would be everywhere. I was also immersed in my own thoughts, thinking of the glorious future the success of my creation would bring me with the President. The possibilities were endless, the recognition and credit I finally deserved was on its way.

I walked up to one of the humanoid security drones standing there and waited as it peered down at me with glowing, narrow red eyes. I knew the robot was scanning me in about twenty different ways at once as a moment of silence passed between us. It then looked within my hazel eyes for a few more seconds before it responded.

“Voice Identification required,” the robot droned.

“Xavier Will,” I answered casually, though pure excitement buzzed within me.

“Proceed forward,” the drone instructed dully, stepping out of the way of the entrance to the large facility.

I stepped into the building, walking along a straightforward pathway that seemed to have no paths branching off of it. I walked through it slowly, occasionally taking glances at the security cameras following my body at every moment. I finally walked towards the end and into yet another room, where red lines went along the areas where the ceiling, floor, and walls met. Two seats came out of an elevated piece of the floor that faced parallel to glass walls that had nothing but black beyond it. One person sat on the one that was the farthest away from me, and faced me with an expressionless face.

“Hello, Xavier. It’s good to see you’re here,” he greeted with a small smile as I approached, and found that the same smile crept onto my face. “How are you doing?”

“I’m excited, Mr. President,” I replied rigorously, shaking his hand. He was a well built but quite pale Caucasian with a crop of dirty blonde hair on his hand, wearing a black suit and looking upon him with icy blue eyes. “Thanks for everything.”

“Please, just call me Devin,” he requested. “I like to be a little less formal with those I plan to work long term with, and that will hopefully apply to you.”

“Okay then. I just have to say that I’m honored to be working with you,” I complied. “You are creating the gateway to my life’s achievement, and I’m grateful for that.”

“Well, I’m honored to be working with you,” he responded, “and I’m glad to know that I’m being such a great help to you. Now, come sit down, and we can talk about what we can do now with your creation here. After all, we can’t thank and praise each other forever, can we?”

President Devin Richards was the 46th President, elected only six months ago. He won in a stunning landslide, as the President preceding him and succeeding after President Obama’s second term was considered to be one of the worst in history. He was already proving to be quite successful publicly; having improved the economy of the United States far past the other Presidents’ work in that area. The entire country was flourishing in ways never seen, which made it that much more of an honor to work with him.

I sat down next to him and suddenly felt a jolt as the entire elevated portion of the ground moved through the narrow space in between the glass walls. The lights within the dark room in front of the chairs suddenly flickered on, showing two soldiers facing each other and holding Falcon rifles in their hands. The rest of the room was completely gray, save for security cameras in the corners watching the soldiers. I felt a hint of suspicion rise in me, something wasn’t right.

“What are the soldiers for?” I wondered, trying my best to keep my tone relaxed.

“They’re merely a part of the example,” Devin answered. “Relax, I promise this will work out to benefit you.”

“Okay, I’m just slightly nervous,” I excused, turning my gaze back to the sight before me.

“You do believe in…opportunities, am I right?” he asked after a pause, the two soldiers raising their weapons up to each other.

“Of course, I mean, why else would I be here?” I chuckled nervously.

“Well, I want to let you know that what I have in mind is a little different, but just as beneficial for everyone,” Devin shared.

“Okay then, blow me away!” I said optimistically.

The two soldiers held their Falcon rifles even higher, both peering through the aiming lens. The one on the right then pulled the trigger, sending a round of bullets flying into the other in a shower of flashes and blood. I stared in total shock as the soldier on the left fell to the ground weakly, wounds peppering his body in splats of crimson. The other soldier walked over to the other, loading the powerful weapon once more, but at that moment the soldier swallowed an ebony colored pill with rings of orange around the ends: my creation. The soldier who swallowed the pill began to convulse as his body changed, but it wasn’t seen very clearly past the soldier, but suddenly that soldier was blown back in a flurry of ebony feathers, sliding back and slamming into the wall in a devastating crash.

The soldier that appeared on the brink of death before was now having his wounds rapidly heal themselves, leaving only the spots of blood behind as massive raven like wings stretched all the way across the room. The other soldier scrambled for his gun and fired off a round of bullets at the other mutated soldier, but the raven like wings folded in front of him and deflected every last one of them. Before the other soldier could do anything else, the mutated solider flew across the room in the blink of an eye and slammed his fist into the other soldier, sending him smashing into the wall with a sickening impact that even folded the wall in. The other solider took in ragged breaths before suddenly stopping, having died.

I wasn’t shocked by the idea of the rapid, supernatural mutations at all-that was a side effect of the drug. However, the intent of what the example proposed compared to what I desired really got to me, and I could barely hide my shock as the President gazed upon the demonstration in satisfaction. This simply could not be happening; it just had to be some sort of twisted nightmare.

“This wasn’t what I intended at all,” I barely managed to say, feeling a noxious substance rise up in my throat.

“I know, but it is still beneficial for you. Imagine all of the fame and fortune you’ll receive, your name going down in the history books-,” Devin began.

“-but that’s not what I meant!” I shouted at him.

“But imagine, we could create a utopia with us as the supremacy of the world, destroying all who stand in the way of our beliefs!” the President explained, and I suddenly realized how insane and wretched he truly was. “We could be at the top, you and me!”

“My life’s whole work was never meant to be some weapon of war!” I hissed furiously. “It was meant to be a medicine, able to cause reverse mutations to cure any disease or injury and make us stronger, not to cause more suffering and pain!”

“It hurts me to see that you cannot envision how my goal can help our entire country,” the President said in false sorrow.

“Our country isn’t everything! How about the people you’re sending out to ingest these things like there’s no tomorrow, or the people living outside our country?” I questioned.

“I’m fixing the problem, and I have no burdens or lose any sleep over those who are not Americans,” he stated coldly.

“The deal’s off,” I concluded, getting out of the chair and beginning to walk back to the other end of the path. “You despicable, sick being, don’t deserve what I’ve worked my whole life for!”

“That’s too bad,” I heard him mutter, and then a sudden prickling sensation crept up my arm. I looked to find a tranquilizer dart lodged within my arm, and before I could even think about the situation, my entire world went black. “Because I’m going to get it, no matter how you try to stop me!”

I recalled how I was led back to my house and told how the President had chosen to use and replicate whatever samples I had there. Then I remembered how things changed in those next six months more than anything else in our history. I remembered how we went into war with pretty much every other country in our world. I remembered how our democracy turned more towards a dictatorship and how the government seemed to turn against itself. I remembered how the Doomsday Clock hit one minute to midnight. And then I remembered that final day before everything went to hell, and what occurred during it.

I knew it was suicide, that I would never make it out alive. But none of that truly mattered. I would redeem myself, even if it killed me. It was my fault that I was so fooled into thinking that no one would try to take advantage of such a power, that there would be someone who would use it for sin and evil. I may have been only postponing the inevitable, as the world was bound to end, but it was no longer about our damned society-not to me, anyway. I wouldn’t let these drugs get to the public or let anyone use them if I had anything to say about it.

I walked up the circling road in front of the Government Research Facilities, one lone storage truck sitting on the outside edge of it. I walked right up to the truck and peered through the door, finding one lone male sitting in the driver’s seat. He opened the door with the touch of a button in confusion, and I leapt into action. I climbed into the truck and threw my entire body weight upon him, sending him sprawling across the seats. He reached backwards for a Hawk pistol, lines of bright azure going into the barrel, but I reeled my fist back and slammed it into the side of his face, a sickening crack echoing from his jaw.

“What do you want?” the driver questioned frantically as I wrenched the Hawk pistol out of his grasp.

“All I wanted was to use my life’s work the right way, but we all can’t have our way, can we?” I hissed apathetically. I then held him down before slamming the barrel of the Hawk pistol into his temple, knocking him out cold. I kicked the man out of the seat, taking hold of the wheel. I started the car and accelerated as fast as I could towards the entrance and the empty booth sitting there, not hesitating to smash right through the entrance and into the facility. The area was literally a grid of warehouses with bridges running in between each one.

“Shoot!” I shouted as gun fire instantly hailed down on the truck. Soldiers dashed at the truck using their own weapons to puncture holes in it, one sailing over my head and shattering through the driver’s window. But I still had a plan, and as the soldiers came closer, I threw myself out of the door, knocking one soldier to the ground and firing one compressed bullet of air at the engine. A fireball shot into the air, blowing me and the soldiers away in a fiery explosion.

I took the opportunity to then roll away and get back up on my feet, spinning around and firing compressed bullets of air up at the bridges where more soldiers tried to shoot at me, taking most of them out before they could recover from the exploding engine. A few still were able to fire at me, but I dashed into one of the warehouses before they could get a good shot at me, finding more scientists and soldiers within. I fired more compressed bullets of air from the Hawk pistol to take out the soldiers, and then pulled out a lighter, allowing the small flame to flicker. I then fired a compressed bullet of air right through the flames, causing another fireball to shoot into the rows and rows of my drugs. Small explosions destroyed most of the supply in that warehouse, and before the scientists could react I moved on and took the stairs up to the one of the bridges, taking another Hawk pistol from a soldier who died, probably from one of my shots from the ground.

I then moved into another warehouse, knowing that the transporting area was just ahead. I ran across a walkway going over the warehouse below, knowing I could always come back if I was still alive later to destroy the rest of the supplies. More soldiers stood in my way, but with the element of surprise and two Hawk pistols in hand I simply beat them to the draw. Gunfire shot up through the walkway around me, and I found myself leaping towards the exit at the end as the walkway was destroyed from under me, trying to avoid the pain from stray gunshots cutting into my limbs and chest. I found the next bridge then moving down like a ramp, where only two more soldiers stood in between me and the transport area. The other soldier managed to hit me in the hand, making me drop one of my guns before I shot him dead with the other.

However, this gave the soldier behind him enough time to ingest one of the drugs, and the next thing I know the soldier in front of me spewed out a massive stream of flames that took up the entire corridor as it approached me. I knew I couldn’t avoid it, and instead ran through it, screaming out in pain as the flames licked at every last cell of skin on my body. I still managed to get through it however and tackled the mutated soldier right through the glass side of the high ramp, sending both of us plummeting towards the ground. I fell on my side, my arm bending at an awkward angle. I gritted in pain, but instead held the mutated solider on the ground and shot him in the back of his head, the only guaranteed weak point in one strengthened by the drug.

I then limped towards the truck that the drugs were being loaded on, one shot instantly taking out the driver who was also loading the truck. I limed towards the still open back, and held the trigger towards the shipment. And then I felt the end of a Hawk pistol slam into the back of my head as one guard held me down, the other taking aim as the President watched in a sickening glee.

“Don’t say I’m stupid,” I glared. “I had my reasons.”

“Oh, I’m sure you did, that’s not the point. I just wanted to make sure the job was done, that was all,” the President chuckled.

“Guess this is it,” I sighed. “But I’m going to let you know: you will fail; someone will step up and stop you. And I hope they show no mercy, and let you rot in hell.”

“I’d like to see them try,” Devin challenged. “Farewell, Xavier Will.”

The compressed bullet of air ripped through my lungs and heart, leaving a gaping hole welling with vaporized crimson in me. And then everything just seemed to fade into black, my body going numb. I pondered on irony one last time, and softly chuckled as my heart came to a stop.