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On the same level as the labs in the Red Army Base was a room that was Tords own personal war room. The only people who had access to that room are Pat, Pau, and himself. He was watching the videos that uploaded to the server as soon as Tom returned from the battlefield. Something had been troubling him for a while now.
Tom had mentioned something about taking a fifty caliber bullet to the chest. How was he surviving something like that? So he was watching the videos for the first time. Most of the videos were the same. Tom throwing himself into danger and then getting shot up by so many bullets. The fact that he came back was beyond simple miracles. It was impossible.
"What the hell is happening." He muttered, throwing up several video on the hologram screens.
He frowned as he watched Tom's desperation getting worse and worse. As the timeline went on, he was using more and more of his monstrous shift to keep himself alive. Then he got to a video that was absolutely wrong.
The sound of the gun firing was bigger than a 50cal, maybe an anti-tank rifle was used. Tom was thrown forward and then he looked down at his own chest. His chest was blasted out, bones spread out from the exit wound like the mouth of some kind of monster opening up to devour something. Tom collapsed to his knees and then falling forward onto his face.
The screen kept recording. It wasn't supposed to do that, though Tord wasn't complaining about the malfunction. The soldiers around Tom were starting to joke and laugh about the fact that they finally killed that defecting bastard.
Then something changed. Tom pushed himself up on his hands and knees. The soldiers all started shouting in fear. The Brit then puked up a purple-black tar. Tord watched as Tom's chest closed itself.
"Haaaa." Tom said as he pushed himself up on his knees, tilting his head. "That actually hurt a lot."
"You fucking monster!!" The soldiers shot at him.
Tom got up, these bullets never hitting him. He pulled out a lighter and a pack of cigarettes.
"Are you enjoying the video, Tord?" Tom asked as the background was suddenly filled with the screams of the soldiers around him.
Tord startled and took a step back. It was like he knew that he was there at that exact moment. But he couldn't.
The screen started to glitch with distortions. Green and red lines tore over the video and then the entire video took on a purple tinge. Tom took a long drag of the cigarette and tilted his head back as he let the smoke lazily float up.
"Well, that's all you get to see." Tom said and the video cut to black.
Tord the started going through the videos faster, looking for ones where the screen stayed on after Tom was down. He saw Tom die and the revive over and over again. The videos would always cut after the screen turned purple tinged.
"You know, I wonder if you've noticed things." Tom said in a video that started abruptly after Tom left the base and then cut to smoke curling up from the bottom of the visor's screen. "I have to assume that you might be curious. Even a little bit."
Tom took a drag of the cigarette, and tilted his head back to let the smoke out. His screen showing several Resistance soldiers floating dead in the air above him, hanging there on nothing. Tom let out a little, sinister chuckle.
"This is going to be the last time you get to see these things in videos. Probably. He's starting to try to peek himself, and I'm not interested in showing my hand yet." Tom said as he looked back down from the corpses. "But you'll still be seeing me, Tord."
The screen went dark. Every video after that was heavily corrupted. Red, green, and purple tears and glitches obscured what was happening for the most part.
"What the fuck?" Tord frowned as he continued to scroll though.
Then he found videos that looked like they were actually playing correctly, but the videos were wrong in a different way. It was like someone was piecing together footage in a jarring way.
"It's not as easy to mess with technology as I thought it would be." Tom said, as he stood in another bloody battlefield. "I'm sure I'll eventually make these videos seamless."
"You are still watching? Probably. Or maybe not." Tom said as he flicked the cigarette away, showing his purple hand. "It doesn't matter. Every day he is getting stronger and that means I'm surfacing more. At least I'm getting some tasty meals out of it."
"It's interesting, this technology you made. I like poking and probing around. I have made a few tweaks myself." Tom chuckled as he stood up from wherever he was sitting. "So many things are happening. It's been quite busy."
The screen went glitchy again. There weren't any other videos after that that had Tom talking to him. Mostly they were glitching and broken with edited videos popping back up every now and again. Then he got to the latest video.
"Alright. Alright, recording is on. I have it set up to immediately back up to the phone." Tom said, but his voice felt different from the Tom who had been talking to him through the videos. "So if something happens, I'll actually know."
He could see Tom glancing past the wall he was hiding behind. "This is stupid. You are fucking stupid, Thomas Thompson."
Tord watched as Tom dumped all of the munitions he had and then he removed his flack jacket. Why the hell would he remove his flack jacket?
"It's okay. You're going to actually die this time. Maybe. And if you don't, then you have the video, right?" Tom took a deep, shaky breath before he said softly. "Okay. Time to die."
The Norwegian watched as Tom threw himself around the corner of the wall and into the sights of maybe a half dozen of Resistance soldiers. The soldiers lit him up, no doubt turning him into a pile of ground meat. Tom fell face first and the visor continued to record.
Tord watched as the soldiers laughed and talked about taking Tom's visor as a trophy. One of them had rolled him over so the visor was pointing up. He reached to grab it and then cussed backing away.
"He's fucking alive! Shoot him!"
The scene continued to play. Tord watched as Tom used some kind of supernatural power to pull a soldier over to him. He riffled through his pockets, found cigarettes and a Zippo. He clearly liked the second thing, asking the man who was hanging in the air if he minded if he kept it.
"No, you won't. The dead don't give a shit." Tom chuckled darkly.
The scene continued. Tord watched Tom kill the captive soldier. Watched him gather up his discarded equipment. Watched as he paused.
After a soldier that had managed to escape the initial massacre was killed, Tom walked over to the vehicle he had used to get there. He leaned against it, smoking another cigarette.
"I think you should fix some things with the visor, Tord. The ports are fucked to all hell with all the blood." Tom said as he let the smoke drift up out of his mouth from beneath the visor. "If you don't, I'll make you do it."
Tord stopped the video, staring at the screen.
'If you don't, I'll make you do it.'
Was that what happened? That day Tom came to him in his lab, did he-whatever that thing was-make Tord, Pau and Pat fix the visor? He stared, easing himself into a chair.
He wasn't so sure that he was actually in control of Tom like he thought he was. Not that he could let anyone know that. Not even his generals. Something was hiding in his base, in his prisoner, that he didn't understand. Not yet anyway.
"It's fine. I'm just tired. None of that actually happened." Tord muttered as he purposely deleted every video from the visor. "Nothing is wrong."