Large stacks of books were scattered around in a small dark room. An elongated light on the ceiling flickered several times until it decided to remain on as the sound of banging on a metal door was heard.

"Hey!" Arkham's voice was barely audible from the other side. "Zero, time to get up! It's morning already!"

With the light shining down on the room with books scattered everywhere to the point that the bed could not be seen, Zero stretched his arms out and slowly sat up, causing some of the books to slide off and join the rest of the muddle. The white-haired boy rubbed his eyes and hopped off his bed. Still half-asleep, he accidentally tripped on one of the stacks and fell with a loud thud.

Outside of the room, Arkham took a deep sigh, "Why's he always like this after a mission?" He glanced to the side and saw a young woman dressed in a striped white blouse and black jeans, glaring at him while her arms were crossed. "Mornin' beautiful." His attempt at flirting was met with a look of disgust. "W-wait, Gabby, I know what you're going to—"

In a single, swift motion, Gabriella kneed Arkham in the crotch. He fell to the floor and let out a high-pitched "why?" as he could barely keep his gaze on her.

"Even though we're almost the same age" —she brushed her long, black hair to the side and glared down at him with her piercing, violet eyes— "I already warned you the first couple times, yet you always continue this behavior." She walked away and down the long, arched corridor.

Even when he was knocked down, Arkham couldn't keep his eyes off of her. Two others walked by and stopped near him. One was an older man in his late twenties and a seemingly little girl staring down at him.

"If he's dead, we can finally get rid of him, right?" The young girl had a mischevious grin as she glanced between Arkham and the older man. She pushed up her glasses and pulled back the sleeves of her gray sweater, poking at Arkham to check if he's still breathing. "Damn."

"Hey, Arkham." The older man helped him to his feet. "Let me guess..."

"It was Gabriella," the guys said in unison.

Arkham leaned back against the concrete wall. "Thanks, Ven" —he glared at the little girl— "and you can go to hell, QT."

Ven crossed his arms and sighed. The stubble of facial hair showed his age more so than the others and he wore a gray and green windbreaker accompanied with baggy blue pants. "You're still aiming for her? By now any man would've given up after the amount of abuse you went through."

QT shrugged and pocketed her hands, "Maybe he took some brain damage or he's just a masochist," she suggested, causing Arkham to give her an irritated look. "Relax, 'tis but a flesh wound," she said with a smug.

"You're so goddamn lucky you look like a kid," Arkham looked away.

The reinforced metal door to Zero's room opened and the mess behind him could be seen for a second as he stepped out as it closed behind him. He glanced between the duo and his partner. "I'm assuming—"

"You don't need to." Arkham stepped forward as his legs trembled. "You already know."

Ven lent his shoulder to Arkham, "You'll recover by the time we get to training grounds."

"Thanks," he said with a cheeky grin. "So, gonna keep cheering me on, huh?"

"No," Ven answered with a stoic expression. "I just pity you... a lot."

Arkham looked at him with a puzzled look as QT struggled to stifle her laughter. Zero, on the other hand, was indifferent to the entire ordeal.

***

Gabriella walked into a room where the walls and floor were entirely made of glass. From the inside, a metal arena twice the size of an American football field could be seen below. A circular table with a few couple chairs was set around it and a soft, black couch was across from it, whereas a vending machine was next to the door.

A slightly younger girl was sitting at the table as she was flipping through several news stations on the television in the corner ceiling of the glass room. With luminescent eyes of hazel and light brown hair that ended at shoulder length, she was already bored out of her mind. She yawned loudly, but noticed Gabriella's soul-piercing glare from the corner of her eyes.

"Christa," Gabriella sat down next to her.

"Gabby," she sighed and laid down her head on the table. "QT really did a number on keeping the world out of the loop." Christa slid the remote over to her, letting Gabriella surf through the channels.

"Nothing as always," Gabriella sighed disappointedly.

"Hey," Christa peeked up. "Have you ever wondered how long we'll be kept a secret from the world?" her words caught Gabriella off-guard and wide-eyed. "I mean, what about the life that we all could've had if we weren't subjects of some experiment months ago?"

Gabriella leaned back in her chair with her arms crossed, "I... I don't know," she held herself. "Around 10,000 people were abducted in a single night." She glanced at her and gulped. "We're still included to this day."

"If any of this didn't happen, where would we be?" Christa asked with a spark of curiosity in her eyes. "Out of all seven of us, only you and Mortem kept memories of the past."

"Mortem?" Gabriella scoffed. "Is that what he's calling himself now? How fitting when the original personality is dead." she stared up at the ceiling. "I don't know about him or the rest of you, but... before the abduction—" she cut herself off.

"Well?" Christa's voice became muffled as she buried her face in her sleeves and white scarf.

Gabriella took a deep breath. "I just got into a university through a volleyball scholarship and only God knows where that could've gone." She shook her head. "You really don't know how much you take something for granted until it's gone. Sometimes it could be good for better or worse."

The sound of several footsteps from behind and the opening of a door was enough to cause the pair to glance back and notice the others have finally shown up. Ven carefully placed Arkham on the couch as QT went up to the vending machine. Zero, on the other hand, leaned against the glass with an encyclopedia in hand.

Christa lazily lifted her head and grabbed the remote, surfing through the stations once again out of boredom.

"Just making sure, you two didn't see any leaks?" QT asked as she pressed a few buttons and her snack got stuck behind the glass. She kicked it out of frustration, but hurt herself instead. "This piece of junk..." she mumbled to herself as she winced from the pain.

"None," Gabriella rest her elbow on the top of her chair and looked back at the young girl. "Somehow you pulled it off again."

Ven gently knocked on the vending machine, causing the snack to fall for QT to take out.

"Well," she popped the small bag open and a small aroma of potato chips escaped it. "There were a few hundred people who were going to post stuff about the events in Paris on Instagram, so I had to work twice as fast this time." She munched on one as she sat down next to Christa.

"Then what'd you do this time?" Arkham cracked his fingers. "Delete accounts? Get their personal info?" He leaned forward. "Blackmail?"

"Those are such amateur guesses," QT quietly offered some chips to Christa, who just shook her head. "I just held their accounts hostage and if they were to post anything even barely related to the whole ordeal, then their account and all digital backups would be wiped clean."

"What if they have something stored away on a USB or some external hard drive?" asked Ven as he sat down next to Arkham.

"I doubt anyone actually did it," QT scoffed. "But if by some chance someone actually did, the files would be wiped the second it's used on a device that's connected to WiFi."

"Are we sure we're not the bad guys?" Arkham asked jokingly as he turned his gaze over to Zero. "What do you say, Z?"

Zero glanced up at him then back down at the book. "No comment."

"Tsk." Arkham rolled his eyes. "Killjoy."

The entire facility began to rumble as if the world's strongest earthquakes all occurred at the same time in a single point. The vending machine in the glass room nearly toppled over as Ven rushed up to it and held it from falling onto QT. Both Arkham and Christa rushed under the table, whereas Gabriella and Zero were unfazed by the sudden tremors. The glass walls around them began to form large cracks, but didn't shatter as the earthquake came to an end.

Arkham peeked out from under the table. "What the hell just happened?" he asked as he helped Christa to her feet.

"Look." Zero's eyes were focused on the TV as it flashed "Breaking News" on the screen.

As the others soon followed, a sense of horror and dread immediately overcame them.

***

Elsewhere in the facility of S.P.E.A.R., a tall man in a black Army Combat Uniform walked down a dimly lit arched hallway. His loud, heavy footsteps were reminiscent of thunder as it echoed from one end to the other. Several soldiers were stationed on each side of the hall and as he walked by, they saluted out of respect for their superior.

When he reached the end of the hall, a set of double doors was before him. He fixed his tie as two men opened the door for him. After the first step into the room, the doors were closed shut behind him.

The window blinds were twisted shut, letting small shards of sunlight deep through. A mahogany desk with two chairs was laid near the edge of the room, in front of the windows. At first glance, the surrounding darkness made it nearly impossible to see the figure behind the desk.

"General Siegbert Baasch," the figure addressed the arrival.

"Commander Desrosier," said Siegbert as he sat down in front of the desk. "So, why did you call for me? I was in the middle of typing up those reports you wanted."

The Commander leaned on his desk. "I've decided that I'd prefer to hear it from you directly."

"In that case," sighed Siegbert. "Recalling the tragedy that struck us all a month prior to recent events, Colonel Isabel Baasch, my wife, along with the rest of the Viper Unit were killed in action by Project Gaia" –he squinted his eyes– "your daughter."

"Are you holding a grudge, General?"

"No." Siegbert shook his head. "I already warned Isabel about the dangers years beforehand. She knew what she was getting into."

"I thought it was fitting to allow my daughter to end the lives of the infected." He leaned back in his seat, "An end by Mother Nature, so to speak."

"Lazarus," Siegbert stood up as he improperly addressed his superior. "She's still a kid."

"She's not a child by any means," Commander Desrosier scoffed. "Legally by law, she's an adult. Nineteen years old and she can already make her own decisions. Remind me, Siegbert, what did I say when I told you the purpose of the Living Weapons Project?"

"To create a weapon that would surpass Mankind's greatest efforts no matter what." Siegbert clenched his fists. "We abducted around 10,000 lives and look where we are now... only seven out of thousands survived the operations. The chances of those surgeries being successful were far less than one percent. The seven that survived are the lucky ones."

"Yet, sacrificing a couple thousand lives is unavoidable when trying to cater to the needs of billions." Commander Desrosier leaned back in his chair. "Continue with the report," he ordered.

"Fine," said Siegbert as he stood tall. "Donovan Guillory, the former head of the PMF, Virus, has been confirmed dead. Other targets of former SPEAR executives have also been successfully eliminated in recent weeks by the Living Weapons."

"And Vallotton?" The Commander asked. "He–"

"Dead, sir," Siegbert interrupted without a shred of hesitation. "Vallotton was executed not too far from the Eiffel Tower in Paris. You can thank Projects L2 and 5A for executing the mission flawlessly in under an hour."

"Excellent," said Commander Desrosier. "Now that all the nuisances are out of the way, we can continue with SPEAR's agenda." He motioned his hand for Siegbert to sit back down.

"What agenda?" asked the General. "We've been dealing with traitors for some time now that I forgot we even had one."

Commander Lazarus Desrosier reached into his desk and took out a small block with several buttons on it. He placed it on the desk, between Siegbert and himself.

"What's this for?" Siegbert asked, eyeing it.

"A few months after the initial operations." Lazarus leaned forward. "I ordered Project Binary, or as they call her, QT, to link a detonation device to the nuclear arsenal of the world and as you can see..."

"Lazarus." Siegbert let out a deep sigh. "This is pure madness."

"At the push of a button, the superpowers of the world will be at the mercy of our fingertips." Lazarus nudged it over to him. "You can have the honor."

"Honor?" Siegbert's eyes widened as he was taken aback. "There's no such thing when a single button can end the lives of millions. Do you want to bring forth a nuclear winter?!"

"Not everything can be resolved by peaceful means, General. Denuclearization is one of them," Lazarus said with a stoic expression. "While the United States Congress is busy fighting among themselves and the Oval Office houses an orange idiot, SPEAR must take action on its own. We've always worked in the shadows and maybe the time for us to show ourselves to the world is near." He stood from his seat. "If you will not detonate every nuclear bomb in the world, I know who will."

The double doors swung open as a single individual stepped through. A young man dressed in a white patient's garb with a metal collar rushed past General Siegbert and swiped the detonation remote. Before the General could take a peek at the arrival, the nuclear arsenal of the world was detonated all at once.

It was too late for Siegbert to do anything in time. Once he saw the person responsible, he recognized the face of the seventh Living Weapon, Mortem, who had a twisted grin on his face.

Back in the glass room, the other six were stunned by the sudden news they were hearing.

"London, Venice, Moscow, Brussels, Jacksonville, and Seattle were among the few of many cities caught in the simultaneous detonation of nuclear weapons worldwide," said a news anchor on the TV. "The current death toll is unknown, but it is already believed to have gone into hundreds of millions worldwide."

"I know I said this before as a joke, but..." Arkham had trouble forming his words. "Are we the bad guys?"

Zero closed his book and placed it on the circular table. "Gabby," he addressed her. "Can you lead me to the archives?"

"What for?" she asked. "Going through some files won't change what happened."

"We'll need answers before we leave," he answered as the others looked at him. "It's clear that we cannot stay here anymore."

"So, what?" Arkham sat down on the couch. "We stage a mutiny or something?"

"Simple," Zero said and glanced at him. "We escape. We'll have to split up to cover more ground. Any objections?"

"None from me." Ven helped QT onto his shoulder. "Leave the security system to us."

Gabriella stood up from her chair. "My position on this whole thing is obvious, but nobody deserves to stay in this hellhole."

"That just leaves me and Arkham, huh?" Christa yawned as she stretched her arms. "I don't trust SPEAR at all, so anywhere would be better than here."

"I guess we'll find and secure our way out," Arkham said as two submachine guns materialized in his hands. "Yo, QT, you haven't said anything."

QT leaned on Ven's head. "Commander Desrosier told me that detonation remote was only for emergencies. Everyone who just died... their blood is on my hands."

Arkham quietly picked up her empty bag of chips and crumbled it up into a ball. "Look." He threw it at her face, causing her to shift her gaze toward him. "You can sulk later. It's time we get to work." 

QT nodded quietly without another word. She and Ven were the first to leave the glass room, then Arkham and Christa, followed by Zero and Gabriella. Three teams of two split up in the facility and each pair went down a different path. 

"Our uprising has begun," Zero mumbled under his breath.

-------------------------------------------------------
Author's Corner: The second update of LW: E was finished a lot sooner than I thought. Luckily, I was hit with a ton of motivation this time around.

I'm either going to rework the prologue or get rid of it entirely. I'm leaning more toward the latter at the moment.

Back in the original LW drafts, I had trouble showing that Zero was a constant reader of different books to try to regain even a fragment of his memories. I think I did better this time around without it being too on the nose, so to speak. 

The action that LW is known for will be coming again in the next few chapters! 

Thanks for reading, voting, and commenting! The insurrection is just beginning! Also, to anyone who lives near the cities that were mentioned... I'm sorry I blew you up.

All comments before May 13th, 2018 do not reflect upon the current version.