> The Conversion Bureau: Gentek's Solution
>  by Blitz Habanera Tuscania
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> The Conference
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

He stood outside waiting, the sun beating down on him with its relentless heat, shade almost in reach, but he remained still and at his post. It didn't help with the regulation black uniform and tri-optics, he questioned the fact he had to wear it though, they weren't actually bringing the virus and they were far away enough from the border to not worry about the PER. At the same time he understood the brass’s worry.

This news conference was to host one of the few people on the planet who knew enough about the virus to de-weaponize it and keep the human race from being assimilated or outright dying off. Well one of the people who had a clue as to what they were doing and had another solution to magical radiation that WASN’T being ponified.

So he was stuck here holding his rifle, waiting for a helicopter already twenty minutes late, while the sun kept beating down. The good news was that he finally visited the White House, though he hadn't… actually gone inside. Sighing through his gasmask he shuffled from one foot to another. Another thing was at least he wasn't the only one, for all throughout the White House, inside and out, there were his brothers in arms patrolling the grounds, eyes alert for anybody that would sabotage the event. He was just the only one to wait directly at the spot where the helicopter was supposed to land.

Finally though, after an eternity he heard the familiar whine of a helicopter in the distance, looking in that direction, sharing his eyes from the sun he could see it. Smiling under his mask he gripped his rifle firmly and walked a bit closer to the landing spot, nothing more than a spot of grass.

Approaching its landing, he could see the proud symbol of Blackwatch on the side, a star overhead the top of a trident in a simple black and white coloring. In the cockpit he could see the pilot waving down at him. Catching his hint he let his gun hang from its doing and proceeded to wave it down, holding his hands up in a stop we it hovered right above the ground.

Grabbing the rifle once more he approached the helicopter as the doors slid open and two men dressed in his same attire jumped out, their rifles sweeping the area around them. He paid them no mind and stood in front of the helicopter, waiting for the man in a white labcoat to disembark. The man in question just watched him with a blank expression, eyes peeking over the edges of his glasses frames as the two Blackwatch soldiers finished their sweep.

At their gesture he stood up from his seated position and jumped out of the helicopter, two more Blackwatch members following him. The man in question was pale a sign of him working too much in the labs, in his late thirties, and eyes that spoke of a disdain for everything he saw in front of him. Then his voice was direct and void of emotion. “I take it you’re here to take me to the press?”

“Correct, if you’ll just follow me Dr. Mercer.” Nodding Mercer trailed after him as the soldier turned around and march around the White House, the four guards that had accompanied him on the helicopter forming a tight square around him. He curled his lips but nothing more, he’d rather have a bunch of gun-happy soldiers around him now then deal with one of those fanatics that had been all over the city lately.

So they marched, the grass being crushed under their feet as dozens of Blackwatch soldiers patrolled the area around them, heads on a swivel alert for anything. But other than dozens of Blackwatch roaming around and one helicopter flying overhead the trip was uneventful, until they turned the corner around the front, where a stage had been built on the front lawn and a tangible army of reporters gathered around the bottom stage, a few of them even being ponies, a couple of pegasi hovering in the air with cameras and other hopping up and down to try and get a view. All the while a man wearing a suit was talking to them, which was audible from their position just by the way the man used his voice.

“Yes, yes I understand why most people aren’t taking the serum. They’re afraid it will change them, which if you look at it scientifically makes sense, what with the different organs and chemistry levels. But I can assure you that we have the makings of a solution that does not require anybody else to take the serum.”

As soon as he stopped talking the army of reporters filled the silence, before one of their voices managed to rise above the crowd. “Then explain this miracle cure Dr. McMullen, you can’t just say you think you have something then not explain it!”

Mercer chuckled as they closed the distance, now only a few feet away from the edge of the stage, McMullen looked over at him and smiled. “Ah well here’s my lead member of the Project, Dr. Mercer! Just let him explain and I'm sure you'll all be appreciative." McMullen nodded to him as he stepped away from the podium and waited for him to finish walking. They both gave each other a small grin as Mercer walked past and up to the podium.

Tapping on one of the dozens of microphones in front of him he cleared his throat. "So you're all wondering about what McMullen has been talking about? Then allow me to explain. As he's stated my name is Alex Mercer, head of Gentek's Anti-Conversion Project, which is in essence just a different way of the ponies' serum that doesn't include the ponification."

Leaning onto the podium he continued. "Our version of the serum though isn't based on magic, nanomachines or even anti-bodies. Instead it's based on a man-made virus that’s proven itself adept at altering genetic code and producing stable results.”

"A few years ago I joined Gentek, and two and a half years ago they put me to work on the virus, weaponize it to battle certain genes that are prevalent to certain races. In layman's terms that means for the past two years I've been working  on a virus designed to kill off all genetic diseases and eventually even cancer in the long-run."

One of the reporters interrupted. "So your version of a cure is a virus? Aren't viruses harmful to humans?"

Mercer held up one of his hands as if to silence the man. "Normally, yes. However, that's only the case with natural viruses, ones that's only purpose is reproduction. However, we are capable of controlling the virus, and manipulate it to our own ends, such that it only does what we want."

The army of reporters started yelling over each other in an effort to have him answer their questions. Mercer watched them all with a smile before pointing at one lady in the crowd. "You what's your question?"

"Has this virus of yours been exposed to Magical Radiation at all yet?"

He nodded. "It's been exposed to levels that are hundred times more lethal to humans, without any ill effects at all. If anything the virus seemed to take to the Radiation and reproduced faster than normal."

The woman continued, briefly looking down to check her notepad. "How close are you to mass-producing this for everyone? Can we expect the conversion bureaus to shut down soon or will we have to wait a few months?"

"I'm afraid we are still running tests on which strains of the virus are safer for humans and are still adaptable to the Magical Radiation. But you can be confident in the fact that those closest to the Radiation will receive the virus before others. I also can't say upon whether or not how much will be mass-produced that question would be better directed to Dr. McMullen."

At that the man in question re-approached the podium and gently pushed Mercer aside. "I'm afraid that he doesn't have any more time for questions, he should be in the lab working on this and I dragged him out so that I could have him re-assure you all that Gentek is in fact coming to a cure for this Magical Radiation." He discreetly gave Mercer a shooing gesture from behind the podium.

Mercer gave a nod and began walking off of the stage, despite the protests of the reporters, the four Blackwatch members resuming their earlier formation around him. "Now now people, I am a scientist myself and it's my company. I'm sure whatever questions you had for Dr. Mercer I can answer. Ah yes you the purple pony with the blue spiky hair-do!"

Mercer paid him no mind as he stepped off the stage and began walking to the helicopter, when a familiar voice called to him, somehow managing to be heard above the speakers. “ALEX!!” He stopped at the voice and looked to the crowd, a familiar face shoving it’s way through it.

“Dana?” He asked incredulously, as the Blackwatch guards around him raised their rifles. He grabbed the closest guard’s rifle and shoved it down, as she broke free from the crowd. He growled at all of them, “Don’t shoot you damn idiots, that’s my sister.”

Walking past the guards he smiled as his sister ran the rest of distance between them and skidded to a stop in front of him, a goofy grin present on her face. Taking a few deep breaths in and out she stared at him, almost as if she couldn’t believe he was there. Mercer was the first to say anything, taking in her appearance, it being a grey hoodie, spiked up hair and a skirt for some reason. “You’ve grown since I’ve last seen you Dana, how have you been?”

His smile was broken by her backhand as she glared at him. “You jackass! How have I been? You left me for almost five years and haven’t so much as called me! I had to track you down just so I could see my brother again!”

Rubbing the cheek she just slapped he sheepishly looked at his feet. “Well, I had to focus on my studies in college, and then Gentech hired me right afterwards, and one thing lead to another…” Alex said trailing off, unable to really come up with a good excuse.

She just crossed her arms and kept giving him that look. “Ahuh.”

One of the guards moved closer. "We don't have time for this Dr. Mercer, we have a schedule to keep to."

Mercer spared a glance at the guard before looking back at Dana. "Perhaps it'd be better if we talk about how we've both been doing these past few years back at my place in a week? I’m sure I will be able to clear some time.”."

"And how do I know you're not just going to disappear again?"

He grabbed her by the shoulders and gave her a reassuring smile. "Look just come by 420 E 54th St apt 310  in a week and we'll talk, I know these goons well enough to know they won't let you come with me."

Dana looked away, pursing her lips as she considered it. "Swear you won't disappear again?"

"I swear, now I gotta go sis' you know in charge of saving humanity as we know it." He gave one last smile before turning around and started his walk back to the helicopter.

"If you disappear again Alex, I swear I'm going to kick your ass!"
> UN Live, four hours after Conference
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------




A man dressed in a black suit and grey tie, with grey hair and a awesome mustache, in his late forties grabbed his glass of water and sipped it as he waited for the cameraman to finish counting down. He watched the said cameraman's fingers as it went from three, to two, to one. As soon as the cameraman hit one he started speaking. "Welcome back to the United Nations Live, where people from countries worldwide, namely the US, Britain, Russia, China and Japan, converse about current events!" He said pointing to himself first then his correspondents as he mentioned each of their nationalities, all of them nodding as he introduced them, the only thing separating them being a half-oval table to discuss over.

Leaning forward to the cameras he continued. "Today's agenda is that of Gentek, a company that houses the best minds of the entire world on genetics, has just announced they might have a cure for Magical Radiation! I'll let my friends here put in their pieces before I put mine in this time."

The first to speak up was the Japanese representative, a man with white hair and stubble clothed in a simple black suit and tie, his voice demanding respect. "I do admit that I'm curious about this so-called cure, that's a virus of all things. For example what's the point of a virus that can alter our genes, isn't the point of this virus to keep us human, while the serum transforms us? If it alters our genetic code then why not bother taking the serum that the ponies are offering?"

"What Gentek probably means by altering our genetic code, is that they can give us the ability to handle Magical Radiation like the ponies can, without actually becoming one of them." Muttered the Russian representative with a roll of his eyes. Sweeping back his non-existent hair he continued. "The one thing we should be wondering about is where did this virus come from? Sure they said it's man-made but I've never heard of a virus that can do that like the way they’re explaining it and, while I may not be a scientist, I'm pretty sure you can't just whip that up in a few years."

The British representative snorted before pushing her glasses further up against her face, her red curly hair bouncing with the slightest of movements. "Oh please they're some of the brightest minds we have out there, if the ponies could find a way to change us, with our help then of course we can figure out how to do it by ourselves. Like I keep saying the only difference between our kinds is our shape."

"That and we don't go invading other planets demanding they be assimilated." Muttered the Russian to which the Chinese man snickered.

The British lady jabbed a finger at him. "Hey, they've done what they can, it's not like they chose to come here."

"No but instead of them getting used to our planet, they're the ones who are making themselves at home by re-shaping the entire planet!" Replied the Russian, his hands gripping the table.

"Now now settle down we're getting a bit off-topic. At least let Yao-Ming state what he thinks and then me before we get into this line of discussion. Every day it seems we argue about the Equestrians and to be honest I'm glad for this change of pace." Said the American holding his hands up as if to physically stop them from speaking.

The Chinese representative, Yao-Ming, said, "Thank you Tom, but I don't have anything much to add. They've already covered the bases, how have they made this virus, if it's any better than the serum offered by ponies and etc. The only thing I have to wonder is what the PER and HLF are going to do in response to this."

Tom, the American, snapped his fingers. "That's what I was going to say! The PER believe that by forcing us to change they're helping us to survive and making us better people. Or ponies depending on how you look at it. So my thoughts were, are they going to keep kidnapping people off our streets? Will they try sabotaging Gentek? Or will they give up now that a cure is actually in sight? Then what about the HLF will the--"

"What do you mean what about the HLF? They're full of people like the Taliban, the KKK, Black Panthers, Nazis and etc. who found something worse than the color of one's skin and choice of religion. A person's species! I'd say if anything the HLF would attack even harder since a cure is almost here and they won't have to worry about being converted." Exclaimed the Japanese representative. "The PER though, I do admit I'm at a loss for what they'd do."

"Oh please Akio, I've said once and I'll say it again, they're here to assimilate us! They already got over a hundred thousand in Beijing, and they aren't slowing down despite their 'queens' telling them to stop."

"They're princesses Sergi."

Sergi waved his hands at the nonsense the British representative said. "Oh whatever, my point is they'll do whatever they can to try and change us so we'll be innocent like them. What I find stupid about this is that I wouldn't even have to debate this with anybody, not even you Lauren, if they were just a bunch of lizard people that popped up out of nowhere. The only reason anybody considers being converted is because they're a bunch of cuddly-wuddly fricking ponies."

Tom placed his elbows on the table and leaned forward with a smile. "So you think the PER are going to try and target Alex Mercer or various other Gentek employees in an effort to try and stop this? Even with the dozen tanks that are driving into New York right now?"

All the representatives looked at him with agape mouth as he said that, though Akio was the first to speak up. "The US has tanks moving into its most populated city? Right now?"

"There's been pictures popping up all over online for the past hour about tanks that are driving down roads, all headed towards Gentek, they're not kidding about keeping them safe. The only way anybody is getting in there is they're on a suicide mission with the gods of war riding in behind them." Tom said with a smile.

"That or maybe some more terrorists." Yao-Ming said. "There's been rumors circulating that the attack on suspected part time HLF member, the governor of Georgia in the US was in fact not the PER at all. It was some pro-Equestrian extremists who think of the royals as gods."

"See they've brainwashed a few citizens of the US to help assimilate us!"

"Okay why are you so obsessed with them assimilating us? I'd swear you're a Star Trek fan if it weren't for the fact you've told me you had no idea what the Borg are. But Yao-Ming raises a good point, what's to stop a few converted and extremists from taking out Mercer, the head of the project? Lord knows how good we are at assassinating people." Lauren commented.

Tom cleared his throat. "Quite simply the best the US has to offer, those men in full on combat gear we saw accompanying him are said to be recruited from every branch of the Military and chosen because they're the best of the best." He was about to continue when he saw one of the camera crew start waving for attention and pointed at his wrist, indicating it was time for commercials. Man that was quick.

"Well folks sorry to say but we have to go for a brief few minutes while the commercials air. But stay tuned to hear about the new Afghanistan crisis as the local terrorists go up against the PER." Tom calmly said to the camera as the cameraman gave him a thumbs up.
> Virus Re-purpose
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Mercer tapped his fingers on his lap as he waited for the helicopter to land by Gentek headquarters. According to the pilot they were supposed to have landed a few minutes ago, but the cluster of tanks and Blackwatch personnel kept them from landing inside the compound and the pilot refused to simply land on the street outside, quoting regulations. 

The Gentek compound itself was a tower surrounded by a four story building that was shaped like a rectangular box with only one opening where the majority of the tanks were going. The outside building had dozens of machine guns nestled in the top, looking outwards on the citizens watching the spectacle. The actual Gentek building itself had a helicopter set upon the top of its roof and another patrolling around in a constant alert.

Though, with a lean of his head and diverting his attention the ground, he could see a space opening up below or at least them making a decent attempt at one.

Without any fanfare from him or the guards assigned to follow him around the helicopter finally started descending, the machine gun adorned roofs of the compound finally disappearing from his sight. With a silent sigh he leaned back in his seat and glanced at his escorts. “You soldiers don't talk much do you?”

The Blackwatch men looked at each other as if having a silent conversation before they turned as one to him. “We aren't paid to talk sir.”

A grin pulled at his lips. “Then we'll all get along just fine.” The instant that last word left his lips he could feel the helicopter bounce on the concrete, before finally settling down. The two by the door slid it open and hopped out, their guns up despite the fact they were surrounded by a tangible army of their fellows.

None of them paid any attention to his arrival though, too busy offloading weapons and various crates, moving their tanks around and putting up sandbags around said tanks. Well not all of them at least, because two heads made themselves apparent in the crowd, with no masks obscuring their faces.

The one on the right that was approaching him was a woman in her late thirties, with black hair, wrapped in a form fitting suit fitting her hour-glass figure and clutching a clipboard to her chest, a evil grin creeping into her face. If he was like any other man he would have called her a goddess but… he was more interested in his work then her.

The man on the left though was something else entirely. With jet-black hair with a white stripe running down the middle of his head and a weathered and beaten face the man approached in his uniform heavily modified uniform outfitted with extra plating, some arm-mounted weapon and an electric baton strapped to his side, all the while a slight interest gleaming in his eyes. The two of them walked towards him with purpose, his guards taking up positions on either side of him. A few feet in front of him the duo stopped, the man crossing his arms and giving him a once-over with her eyes.

The woman spoke up, and held her hand out as if to shake his hand, but lowered it as he glanced at it. “Hello Dr. Mercer, I'm Sabrina Galloway, the person who suggested the conference?” Her tone sounding like she expected him to know her.

Ignoring her he turned to the unnamed man. “And you would be?”

“I’m Captain Cross, here to make sure nobody kills you, though I would recommend we go inside now.” Cross said, no hint of emotion showing in his voice. “It’s better that Sabrina continues her self-pompous praise in a less open space.”

Sabrina glared at him but sighed as Mercer nodded and brushed past them, the duo following closely behind him. Mercer glanced behind himself to Sabrina. “Well weren’t you saying something? I’m sure you can speak while we walk can’t you?”

She stammered slightly before looking at the clipboard once more. “Well I’m the Financial Director who convinced McMullen to announce the cure, the main reason for this was to skyrocket our shares and get more government grants. I can happily say that it worked on both accounts and as of now McMullen has authorized all of your requests for the Project.”

Mercer slowed slightly then resumed his speed as he thought of his various requests over the past six months. “Even my request for more…. exotic volunteers?”

“Mmmmhmmm, we actually have a few inside right now, though may I ask why you requested these particular ones?” Sabrina asked as they stopped in front of Gentek’s sliding doors and Mercer swiped his card, revealing the inside full of Blackwatch roaming around and a few scientists. They walked by the front desk and past a few closets, and a snack machine populated by a dozen Blackwatch busy chowing down, before stepping inside of an elevator, the scientists inside dispersing as Cross glared at them.

They all stepped inside, Cross crossing his arms and leaning against the back wall and Sabrina pulled out a smartphone and started flicking through it. Mercer pushed one of the buttons before finally responding to her question. “Different cultures, genes etc. need to cover all my bases if it means dealing with some black market things.”

She looked up from her phone to look at him, before reaching past him to press another button on elevator. “So you’re trying to make sure it’s good for all people? Why not just ask for them off the streets?”

Mercer sighed before rolling his hands and eliciting a crack from them. “Because so far the viruses have the same effects as they originally did and I’ve just been able to tone down its effects.”

Mercer watched the floors’ respective numbers flash on and off as they went up and glanced at Sabrina with a mute question on his lips as they stopped five floors short of his destination. Sabrina looked at him and shrugged. “There’s other scientists in this company you know, this is where Dr. Koenig is supposed to be and I need to talk over his budget with him, he’s been a bit spendy lately.”

With that she walked out the open door and a pair of Blackwatch Troopers that had been waiting outside took one look at Cross before turning around and walking away. “They afraid of you or something?”

“No they just know if I catch them screwing something up I’ll force them to make the toilets shine.” Cross said with a chuckle, pushing himself off the wall as they arrived at Mercer’s floor. Mercer gave a small smile as they stepped out of the elevator and into a small featureless corridor, well mostly featureless minus the window walls that were on either side of them full of Hazmat suits and Blackwatch troopers behind an army of consoles and more wandering around in the background as they moved to their respective areas.

The two of them walked to the the middle where the ceiling started spraying chemicals on them, a white cloud filling the room, and Mercer walked over to a Hazmat suit hanging on the wall. Donning the suit he looked at Cross. “This is a quarantined area, you sure you want to keep your mask off? Not exactly good for your health.”

Cross shook his head as he approached the two closed doors at the end. “I’ve dealt with the virus before, you can say that I’ve gotten used to it.” Mercer looked at him questioningly before shrugging and zipping the front of his suit closed and flipped the hood over his head, becoming another one of the many Hazmat suits running around. When he had done that the ceiling stopped spraying and unseen fans started sucking the chemicals out of the hall.

“Would you mind if I take a sample of your blood? Seems like it’d be something that I could use.” Mercer asked as the doors finally opened and they stepped through it, two Blackwatch troopers set on either side of the door snapping a salute as they walked through. “Anyways so you’re my personal bodyguard? Why’d they pick just you and not a squad?”

“How much do you know about the virus, they haven’t briefed me on how much I’m able to talk to you about it.”

“Well considering the virus’ history in Idaho, an underground city or two and the specimen we currently have locked up I think it was prudent that they told me what I was working with. Albeit I already knew some of this before hand but not to the extent I do now, since now we’re trying to turn the deadliest virus we have ever conceived in history into something that’s supposed to save our entire species.”

Cross trailed close behind him as he talked and walked through the maze of corridors with purpose, many rooms locked and completely hidden from view and the view that weren’t locked instead had windowed walls allowing him to look in on the scientists as they tinkered with vials of the various strains they had made. One particular lab had two of them discussing the particulars of bone growth in those afflicted with the virus, or he guessed so judging by the X-rays they had up on a screen and a projector beside it showing the virus itself.

Turning his attention back to Mercer he simply asked, “So you know what I mean by I single-handedly took out a Runner?”

Mercer slowed as he turned around to look at Cross and leaned in for a better look, his visor obscuring any type of face he was making. “So you’re that guy huh? Blackwatch must be worried about these ponies for you to be my personal bodyguard.” He shook his head and turned around a corner as he continued musing to himself.

After a minute more of walking they both heard a rapid series of footsteps approaching them. They both turned to see a Hazmat figure jogging towards them, and Cross reached for his electric baton. The figure slowed down at this and gestured for him to wait, before pulling his hood off to reveal himself as Dr. Koenig an old man with white hair and scratched face that looked like he was ten years away from death. “Sabrina’s looking for you, you do know that Koenig?” Mercer asked sarcastically, of course the old man knew it he just was adept at avoiding people he didn’t want to see.

“No I didn’t but Mercer you need to come with me, I’ve hit something that you won’t believe.” Koenig said excitedly as he pulled his hood back on and gestured for the two of them to follow. Mercer and Cross looked at each other before Mercer shrugged once more and followed after Koenig.

“So what’s so important Koenig?” 

Koenig turned around and started walking backwards his hands waving around in the air as he explained. “Okay you know how Gentek put me in charge of the Retribution Project? And how’re you’re in charge of the Genesis Project, but thus far all your viruses have had the same results more or less?”

“Yes.” The Retribution Project was Gentek’s counter-pony weapon. Why’d they need to dedicate over a few dozen scientists to it he didn’t know since they already had the makings of a  world-threatening virus. If you were to ask Mercer it was a waste of funds that could be put to better use helping with his project, the one responsible for saving humanity as they knew it.

“Well I went ahead and asked the Director for your viruses that you ruled as ineffective so I could find ways to better spread mine. One of your more recent ones, DX-1758 B I believe it was, has had a drastic effect on my subject that I think you’ll want to see.”

“How about you just tell me now so we don’t waste my precious time?” Sighed Mercer as Koenig kept walking backwards and practically dragged him away from his laboratory.

Koenig laughed from behind his mask. “Oh believe me Mercer you’ll be amazed at what your virus has done to my subject.” With that Koenig turned around and started to slow as they turned around a corner and walked down an empty hallway, with only one door in it and it was set at the end. Cross slowly cast his gaze around as they walked to the door and Koenig begun to swipe his card through the lock, he had just realized how quiet and still this area of Gentek was.

He rested his left hand on his baton and watched as the door slowly opened into a lab setting, with four hazmat wearing scientists huddled in front of one of the consoles and argued about it. In the middle of the room were a few computers lined up against each other and an out of place couch that seemed to be just shoved in there. That was all he could see from the door and when he followed Mercer and Koenig in he realized what Sabrina meant by he’d been a bit spendy lately.

At the far end of the room were the consoles and scientists he had seen from the door and was something he expected. The vault doors lining each side of the lab’s walls and the screens above each of the doors showing infected weren’t something he was expecting. Nor the fact that there were at least two dozen of them in the various vaults, all of which were ponies, some had blades coming out of their shoulders, two had their heads completely turned around and one of them was still in the infection stage, currently puking up blood. He shook his head before continuing to follow Mercer, his boots stomping on the white tile beneath his feet.

Koenig walked over to one door and stopped in front of it and waited for the two of them to approach and with a silent smile gestured at the screen above him. “Tell me what do you see on the monitor right now?”

Mercer took a moment to look at it before commenting. “Looks like a pustule that’s been bleeding red for the past few days. Or like you cut something off of a hive back during Hope.” It was nothing more than a bulging mass of bio-material that had veins crawling up the walls of its cells, that all pulsed at a regular interval like a heartbeat.

“This is what your virus did to a PER volunteer that was acquired. All these others ones have been infected with other strains and I’ve seen hundreds of viruses come and go but this,” He gestured at the screen again. “Is the first time I’ve seen the virus completely repurpose one of it hosts to this level. But the best part is this. Henrick go ahead and warm up specimen twenty-four.” 

One of the scientists nodded before walking over to one of the computers in the middle of the room and started typing away at the keyboard. Mercer and Cross carefully watched the egg-like specimen, just to see it become engulfed in flames. They were about to question why when they noticed a distinct clanging noise, so dull but yet noticeable. Mercer looked away from the screen to notice that all of the specimens were freaking out, clawing at their doors and trying to break them down. “Okay turn it off Henrick.”

The scientist nodded and clicked a single key on the computer before returning to argue with his compatriots. “As you can see it seems that unlike other infected this pustule is able to broadcast its pain or distress much easier. We’ve burned other infected before and none of them seemed to take notice but when we tried burning this one, all the infected started panicking.”

Mercer nodded before looking sideways at Koenig through his mask. “Wait you tried burning it before? Seems fine to me.” 

“Ah right, that’s the second best thing.” He looked expectantly at the monitor as the flames started dying down. Mercer followed his gaze to see the pustule sitting there, no scorch marks present at all on its form. 

Cross was the first to speak.  “What the hell?” 

“I know, I can’t wrap my head around it either, that fire is more than enough to burn away enough bacteria and viruses that we could eat in there if we wanted to. But yet this pustule remains intact, we are hoping the Director will let us shut down this floor so we can extract some material from it. We’re not willing to risk an infection by opening that door as long as it’s still intact.” Koenig said shaking his head or more accurately his hood.

“How long have you tried burning it for?” Mercer asked as he walked to the computer Henrick had just been using and ran his hands over it.

“About ten seconds continued burning it, usually enough for the specimens and the heat we have, why?”

“Only fat catches fire easy, so maybe it’s just the fact you haven’t tried burning it enough.” Mercer said as he pressed a key and the flames resumed pouring over the pustule. 




Her eye twitched, before relaxing back into it’s comatose like state. The same state she’d been in for as long as she had to wait, listening to their cries of pain. But soon they’d be cries of joy, and the others would making cries of pain. It was waiting that was the real pain, having to ignore the children. Soon she’d be able to give care to her children though, the new others would help her stop waiting. 

Just more waiting, but less waiting soon she’d repay the new others by making them part of the family. All one big happy family soon, just wait until it was time to stop waiting.
> UN Live, Talking With A Princess
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------




He counted down the camera man’s fingers yet again before putting on a happy smile and looking at the cameras. “And welcome back to UN Live for another discussion centering around Gentek with me the American rep. Tom, Chinese rep. Yao-Ming, Japanese rep. Akio, Russian rep. Sergi and British rep. Lauren.” Each respective person gave a greeting whether it was a nod or a wave, all except one person that remained unnamed sitting at the middle of the table, drinking a glass of water, awkwardly held in hoofs.

“But today as some of you viewers might have noticed we have a very special guest in the studio. Please give a warm welcome to one of the Princesses, Princess Twilight! The pony responsible for all scientific funding for almost every project their country can think of.” Tom finished with him propping his head on his hands as he leaned towards said Princess. “So tell us your royal highness, what brings you here today, beyond us inviting you?

Twilight gave a nervous smile and set down her glass of water, casting a glance at the Russian who was glaring at her. “Well um, as you said already I’m in charge of funding any scientific operation and I’m going around to make sure all the Bureaus are up to code. That and Gentek told me they’d like to see me so I figured I’d more or less swing by.”

Akio arched his eyebrow when she mentioned the Bureaus, while Sergi’s glare had a scowl added to it but otherwise remained silent. “So you’re in charge of the Bureaus?”

Twilight shook her head. “No just in charge of funding, as much as I’d want to help with the application and creation I just don’t have any idea as to what goes on.”

“Frigging help the PER then.” Muttered Sergi. Everybody at the table minus Twilight shot him a glare to which he shrugged. “Hey I don’t exactly see these freaks doing anything to sto--”

“Sergi? Please do us all a favor and shut the bloody hell up? I don’t think any of us want a diplomatic incident on our hands.” Lauren said matter-of-factly. “Ignoring our friend’s outburst here, what makes you the one in charge of the scientific operations of Equestria and not say Luna?”

Twilight gave a small smile at the change in topic. “Well Celestia has decided to take up the diplomatic relations side of the table, which is a major job for her. Nopony was expecting to wind up on a different planet with countries you’ve never seen or heard of before, that all think you’re out to get them. Which would leave either me or Luna in charge of domestic affairs and Luna has a lot more experience with handling that, which also takes up all her time because she has to calm down the populace and re-assure them nothing bad’s going to happen.  So naturally funding most projects, scientific or not, has fallen to me.”

Yao-ming nodded. “So how is your kind handling this, we can’t exactly see for ourselves like you ponies can just by walking around the cities. Considering how peace-loving your culture seems to be it must be hard for some of them to know that they’re the cause of innocent deaths.”

Twilight sighed and her ears flattened down against her head. “Some are taking it okay since there’s the Conversion Bureaus popping up everywhere and they rationalized it to simply humans taking the serum. Others… not so much. Some ponies think along the lines of a few humans as in we have no right to do what we’re doing.” She paused to drink the rest of her water. “They think that the Bureaus are nothing more than horror factories changing how people think, and annihilating a culture.”

Tom raised a finger to ask a question, but was cut off by Sergi who rushed into the conversation. “What’s the excuse for changing how people think huh? All the info we’ve been given is, ‘oh it changes some chemicals or something’, that ain’t enough to change a person’s entire personality.”

Twilight scoffed. “That’s what makes a personality, not just experiences but chemicals too. There’s enough examples of people in your culture where they go crazy from too much testosterone, not enough sleep or some mental disease eating away at their brain. The serum completely changes their physiology, including the brain which results in radically different chemicals sent and received throughout the body. To stay that they wouldn’t change is like… saying smoking doesn’t change how something tastes. Chemicals are one of the determining factors in every species.”

Sergi gave a mocking smile. “I thought you didn’t know what went on in the Bureaus and were just in charge of funding?”

“It’s common sense and common science for both our worlds that chemicals alter your perception of reality. I was absorbed in books like that when I was a child and I remember most of it.”

He scowled and leaned back in his chair. “Anyways let’s stop overlooking the elephant in the room shall we? You and the other Princesses seem to be in favor of the human race changing to ‘save’ us, so are you helping the PER with their operations?” Her eye twitched slightly.

“Sergi!” 

“Shut up Tom it’s a good question whether you all agree or not.”

Twilight waited a few seconds to respond, stopping her twitching eye and gave him a smile. “What makes you ask that?”

“Because these PER are a lot more efficient, organized and supplied then any terrorist group has the right to be and your gover--”

Twilight interrupted him. “And the same can be said of the HLF who have access to dirty bombs, jets, a few tanks and some ships.”

“We’re fighting for our planet here,” Sergi said, placing his hands on the table and leaning forward slightly.

“And we’re trying to live here.” She said dropping her smile and looking at him with half-lidded eyes. “In fact you should be thanking us for what we’ve done to stop the PER in comparison to what the rest of the world’s done to stop their HLF.”

Tom interjected by throwing a wadded piece of paper at Sergi to make him stutter and quickly added his own bit. “Just for the record we’ve kept the lid on such busts in the US low, due to the nature of the operations and who’s involved. But may I ask what Equestria has done?”

Twilight brought her hoof up to her chin and tapped it in mock thought. “Well talking about the PER in anything but a negative way has been outlawed, we’ve turned away suspected members who have been asking for money for their companies, severely restricted anything that could be used as a weapon to anypony that’s showing interest in visiting the world. We also run background checks on anypony who tries to leave. Oh we’ve also locked down an entire town down due to certain theories, and knowledge that pro-PER were using it as a base.”

“Well in Britain we’ve started restricting any arms to only military and a few policemen added that possession of any illegal firearms now includes up to a hundred thousand pounds per firearm along with the before implications.” Lauren said with a smile.

Yao-Ming shrugged. “We are the country with the largest population in the world, with an influx of the Japanese government personnel who refused to be converted and brought their many weapons. Hard to keep tabs on all of them you must understand, along with how crime was before all of this started occurring. “

“Considering that my country has either been assimilated into a New Equestria or is co-existing with China we don’t have too much say in countering either PER or HLF operations, heck we’re still working out the kinks with China right now.” Akio said with a sigh.

They all looked to Tom to see what he had to say. “Hey like I said the busts we’ve done are kept quiet due to how we’re proceeding and we aren’t about to restrict the people’s second amendment rights. We are known for having one of the highest, if not the highest, gun to citizen ratio in the world.”

A few of them shrugged and commented slightly but otherwise kept quiet as they looked at Sergi. “What? We treat the HLF like we do any other terrorist organization.”

Twilight rolled her eyes. “From what I hear anybody who are thought to be PER are immediately thrown in jail, regardless of actual evidence against them.”

He dismissed her accusations with a wave and looked to the side. “Baseless rumors, besides if we are in fact treating the PER as something more dangerous than other terrorist organizations, it’s because they are more dangerous. Not just in goal but also due to the fact they’ve done more to Mother Russia by targeting our government heads.”

“Wasn’t an oil tanker blown to smithereens in one of your harbors?” Akio asked.

“Inconclusive evidence of what organization did it, or even if it was one.” He looked to Twilight, through his eyelashes as he drummed his fingers on the table. “So what theories were you talking about earlier?”

She gave a slight grin, her eyes darting to the right where the cameraman were busy waving at them. “Hey I think that they’re trying to say something.”

Tom looked over before looking back at her.. “Oh well that’s the signal for the commercial break, which means according to you earlier you had somewhere to get to after this talk. Well it was a pleasure talking to you Princess and we thank you for your time.” At that he turned to the cameras. “Next up, infamous or famous, depending on how you look at him, HLF member Johnson Senson is captured by a joint operation between Equestrian forces and Canadian Special Forces. We’ll go over how this operation went down as best we can, with the Canadian Representative.”
> Ghost of Vadenburg
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Come on Sapphire, there’s nothing here.” Whispered Glaze as they stood outside the silent abandoned military base, where rumors had been circulating around of a ghost haunting it. She was dressed in all black as to sneak past the few pony guards that had been stationed around the forgotten human base, as sort of a token since the US government had told them that toxic chemicals were all over the base.

Her sister shook her head, her curled golden mane bouncing as she had taken off her hood, as it hadn’t felt comfortable to her with her horn . She kept her lips pressed tightly together and only moved them to talk before resuming their previous position. “Nu-uh, the bet was to walk up to the fence, take a picture and leave. I am NOT going inside. Didn’t you hear those screams last week?”

Glaze laughed and softly punched her sister on the chin. “Oh please that was a wolf or something, not a human or a pony. Come on you said yourself you’re tired of everypony calling you a coward, just take a picture with me inside and we can tell them all to shut up.” She leaned in to nuzzle her sister, in hopes of re-assuring her.

Her sister relented and nodded, before pulling her hood back up over her head and spaced her legs apart. Glaze smiled under her mask and gave a few flaps of her wings to hover over her sister and wrapped her hooves around her sister’s ribcage. With a slight grunt of effort she lifted her sister up and over the fence surrounding the abandoned base and deposited her on the other side, opting to trot ahead instead of flying so as to make sure she wouldn’t get too far ahead of her sister. 

Glaze stopped every few seconds so her sister could catch up as the two of them wandered deeper inside the base, past abandoned tanks and planes, the feeling of being watched driving Sapphire crazy. A few minutes into wandering Sapphire stopped and stared at one of the tanks, which was completely upside-down. “I thought that they were in a hurry to escape the magical radiation?”

Glaze glanced at the tank before shrugging and continuing on, heading for the middle of the base. “Well it’s kind of the apocalypse for them, and every apocalypse book I’ve read had carriages upside down.”

“But those are a lot heavier…” Sapphire trailed off as she noticed her sister kept on walking, and broke out into a full run to catch up to her. “He-hey wait for me!”

Glaze snickered at her little sister’s attitude but as they pressed on into the base, they found more things that were amiss. Entire tops of tanks were gone, just to be found around the next bend of buildings, wedged into the walls. Planes were molded, like Play Doh, with tanks in some mix-match scheme. Entire walls were gone, torn down by some unforeseen force. There were even a few blood trails, leading off into the distance.

The two of them glanced at each other, Glaze’s earlier bravado gone now, thanks to the blood trails. She asked nervously, “Well um, maybe some wolfs had something to eat?”

Sapphire just shook her head. “I-I’m not going a-any farther ahead. So we take the picture now, or we leave.”

“Yeah sure, here’s just as good as the HQ.” Glaze turned to her sister and lifted her wings, exposing a camera that had been expertly taped to her side. Sapphire’s horn lit up as she levitated the camera off her sister and put it in front of them, her sister flipping off both their hoods as to prove it was them.

Glaze wrapped her hoof around her sister’s neck as the two posed in front of a pile of three tanks stacked on top of one another, and with a flash of the camera the deed was done. Sapphire floated the camera back to herself to make sure the picture was good and they could leave. Glaze whistled to herself and kept tapping her hoof as she waited. “Come on is the picture good?”

“Ummm, can you turn around?” Sapphire asked quietly.

“Er why?” Glaze replied, beginning to turn her head.

“Well I’m wondering if this kid is just in the photo or is actually behind us,” her sister said to her just as quietly as she first did.

Glaze didn’t say anything as she finished turning her head and stared behind them. Sitting on one of the three tanks was a small child, who didn’t look any older than four, watching them with a curious expression. He was only clothed in a white buttoned shirt, brown pants and a pair of green shoes, his hair a dirty light brown, but his eyes were wide as he stared at the two of them. “He’s there.” Glaze said with no hint of emotion.

“Oh okay.” Sapphire said as she turned around and walked directly up to the young human.

“Woah woah!” Glaze practically shouted at her sister. “We don’t know what that thing is!”

Both the child and Sapphire raised their eyebrows at her. “Really? How many species do you know of that wears clothes, has hair only on their heads, hangs out in human-populated areas and are this small as a child?” With that Sapphire finished walking up to the human perched on the wreckage of one of the tanks. “Hey there fella, how’d you get here?”

He kept staring at her, mute. “Where’s your parents?”

Still silent, but he cocked his head. “Do you speak Equish?”

Glaze trotted up next to her and nudged her. “The reason I said we don’t know what this thing is, is because last time I checked, this place is toxic to humans. It’s a few days trot to get somewhere reasonably safe for humans to be, and I don’t see how this kid got all the way out here.”

She shrugged at her sister and leaned away from the child to whisper to her sister. “I dunno, maybe he’s special?” She leaned back to the child and reached her hoof out towards him, to which he simply crossed his eyes to keep it in focus. Slowly her hoof traveled towards his face and bopped his nose, and he went back to staring at her as her hoof rested on his nose.

“You want a hug lil’ guy?” Sapphire cooed to him, and still he remained silent. “You want a hug.” She stated before enveloping the child in a hug, him releasing a squeak at the sudden movement. Glaze watched his face as it was enveloped in a confused look, and gave her sister a few pats on the back, seemingly not knowing what to do.

Glaze coughed to get her attention. “We should get going sis’ it’s going to be daylight soon and I think he’s here for a reason.”

Sapphire half-turned to her and scowled. “What are we going to leave a child here all alone?”

“If we bring him back to the town, the radiation will kill him! And unless you think we can go three days straight out to the East to get him out of here before it’s damage is done you’re crazy. Best to leave him alone here, he’s been here for Celestia knows how long.” Glaze said giving her sister a reassuring nuzzle. “He seems content to be here.”

Sapphire made to protest but thought it over for a moment before sighing. “Yeah and this place is supposed to be radioactive to us too from what the US said… Okay let’s go before I change my mind.” She finished letting go of the child and turning around to leave.

Glaze let her sister pass her to watch the child for a few more seconds, who was busy brushing off where her sister had just hugged him, then followed her. The two traveled in silence back outside the base, walking large circles around the blood trails, and within ten minutes arrived back at the fence.

Glaze once again took to the air with her sister held between her hoofs and dropped her on the other side. Wrapping her wings to her side again she took a few steps forward along with her sister when they heard a soft thud behind them. The two slowly turned to see the child smiling at them, a small cloud of dust emanating from where he was. Glaze asked incredulously, “How’d he get over the fence?”

“S-same way he got over it the first time I guess…” Sapphire said, before whipping her head to her sister. “We can’t let him follow us, if he does he’ll die from magical radiation!”

Glaze nodded, giving the child a silent glare. “Are you up for letting me fly you again?”

“Um, just long enough for us to get out of sight for this little guy, you know I don’t like flying.” Glaze nodded once more before flapping her wings again and grabbing her sister.

“Okay I’m gonna go on three. One. Two… Three!” She shouted before shooting off into the air with her sister, said sibling shrieking in terror, as the child watched dumbfounded. Glaze darted off down the road away from the base, low to the ground as to avoid being seen, a few buildings passing by with no more sound besides the wind whipping by them.

Glaze kept flying until her wings hurt, to make sure the child wouldn’t try following them and eventually slowed down to drop her sister. It had been at least a minute of straight-flying for her holding her sister and as such she dropped to the ground struggling for air. Sapphire too fell down to the ground trying to breathe, not from exhaustion but because the entire time she’d been shrieking.

The two sisters clad in black ninja-like outfits laid on the ground outside some business with a green neon sign hanging up on the side of the building, that sign being the only light source on the entire street, casting everything in a creepy green glow. Up and down the streets rolled random newspapers, a bike lying on the road run over by a car and dozens of windows up and down the street were smashed as people had stolen from random shops, markets and etc.

Sapphire eventually started giggling and shoved her sister playfully. “I-I told you not to go fast you idiot.”

Glaze waved her hoofs in the air incoherently as she was still trying to get air into her lungs. Sapphire kept giggling until a shadow fell over her and the entire street as something blocked part of the neon sign. She craned her head over to look at it and was reminded of some comics she found in the town she now called home. “Are you Batman?”

The shadow said nothing as it hopped down out of the way of the light and walked up to her his head craned quizzically again. The child crouched and watched her as she stared at him bugeyed.

How did the child move so fast as to follow her and her sister? Even carrying her, Glaze was faster than any human had the right to be with just legs. Glaze offered her own input. “What. The. Buck. Is that the kid from the base?” Sapphire nodded. “It’s a bucking ghost.”

Sapphire let out a nervous laugh as the child cocked his head to the other side. “Maybe h-he’s like their version of an alicorn?”

Glaze didn’t respond and opted to stand up, her sister following suit, along with the child as he stood up to shoulder-height with them, a slight smirk on his face. It was there for a moment before returning to a blank face that watched them. “We’re not gonna lose this brat, I say we just keep on walking back home and hope he gets bored of following us.”

Sapphire nodded and the two started to make the hour long walk back home, the child silently following behind them, his eyes travelling over the abandoned ruins and various other things they passed along the way. Multiple times the two sisters would turn around to see if the child had stopped following them and each time the child would be there stock still and staring at them.

Before the sun even peeked over the horizon the impromptu party of three arrived at their destination, a small repurposed human town near the coast that had been used as one of the few settlements that ponies had set up in the US. It had gone from the original look of a abandoned city in the apocalypse to a more decorated town with ribbons, colors and paint everywhere.

The sign to the city had been painted over with somepony declaring it as New Haven. Sapphire and Glaze looked at each other and then back at the human. “How is he still alive?”

“I-I dunno may--” Sapphire immediately broke out into a major coughing fit, spending ten seconds coughing before rubbing her throat.

“You okay sis?”

Sapphire shook her head and gave her sister a reassuring smile. “I think it’s just the dry air.”
> White Lining
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Mercer idly drummed his fingers on the table as he waited for the microwave to stop cooking his lunch, the object in question being a piece of chicken he had taken from somebody’s lunch. It would hold him over for the next five hours despite barely being the size of his fist. When it started to beep he opened the door and yanked his ill-gotten lunch out and retreated to a table in the corner of the room, empty save for Cross who was busy eating some type of Indian food.

The rest of the room was filled with various people, scientists, interns since this floor wasn’t off limits, Blackwatch personnel etc. It was a decent sized room filled with round tables and chairs, easily allowing the fifty or so people to congregate in there with only minimal trouble to space. The few people in his way parted like the Red Sea did for Moses, knowing better than to irritate him. The two Blackwatch personnel guarding the open door watched him, their rifles idly held in their hands.

Cross glanced up as Mercer dropped his plate on the table and sat down to eat, and said hello through his mouthful of some type of rice before returning to eating. Mercer in turn nibbled at his food as he was thinking of whether or not to continue with one of his experiments, that could potentially be reap him rewards unlike any he’d seen thus far in any of his other experiments, but had yet to show any success.

He was drawn out of his thoughts by Cross tapping on the table to get his attention. Mercer looked up to see him holding a hand to his com-link and was listening before finally saying, “Yeah, hang on a second. Your sister’s outside Mercer, took her from the house you told her to go to, do you want to talk to her now?”

“Oh right…” He muttered. He forgot about that, he’d spent the past 24 hours watching one of his experiments and to make sure it didn’t grow out of control. And before that he’d been finishing up with a few essentials, firing an idiot that nearly broke one of his vials of virus, watching the Blackwatch troopers move through his lab like brutes etc. etc. He could tell them to keep her waiting but considering her attitude and what-not, she’d probably break a few kneecaps to try and figure out what he’d been up to and end up getting shot.

Sighing he nodded. “Bring her in.” Cross nodded and stood up, proceeding to leave but not before talking to the two guards at the door, who both saluted and remained standing there. Probably were told to keep an eye on him. Mercer continued nibbling at his chicken, waiting for Cross to come back with his sister.

Ten minutes later he heard a slight scuffle outside as somebody was shoved aside, or so he guessed by the loud thud against the wall, and then lo and behold his sister appeared practically steaming while Cross followed her. Her eyes immediately locked onto him and she stalked towards him, the guards making to intercept but stopped as Cross grabbed them both by the shoulders and held them back.

Dana stalked towards him dressed in a black jacket, with a striped shirt underneath, neither of which traveled down to cover her midriff. On her lower half she wore a denim skirt and black leggings, with target brand red tennis shoes. Her hair was a ruffled red brown, mixing well with the slight freckles she had under her pale green eyes. Which were set

Mercer gave Cross a glare and he responded with a slight grin, moving over to the wall so he could lean on it and crossed his arms to watch the sibling fight that was about to happen. Mercer went from watching Cross to Dana as she yanked out a chair and sat down in it with a huff, staring at him silently for a few moments. Then she said,  quite pissed with a hiss, “What the fuck was up with the armed guards kidnapping me? And why aren’t you living at your house anymore?”

The chatter died down slightly in the room as a few heads turned towards them. He glanced at each of the heads and they all whipped back towards their food like nothing happened. Turning back to his sister he held up his hands in mock surrender.  “Dana calm down, it slipped my mind that I live here now.”

“How the hell do you forget where you live?” She asked jabbing a finger at him. 

“Same way I forgot I had a sister?” Oh if looks could kill, he’d be more dead then his specimens right now. 

“Oh yeah and as to that fuck you.” Her jabbing finger reached across the table to hover right in front of his nose. She sat back down and crossed her arms in a huff. “Mind telling me exactly what the fuck you’ve been doing, thats been so important?”

He shrugged and took another nibble of the chicken. “You know trying to save humanity as we know it, it’s hard to make the rig--”

“They only showed up six months ago, I meant beforehand.” She hissed at him.

He stopped nibbling and looked her in the eyes. “Same thing. Creating the ultimate virus, able to do anything I’d program into it, such as stop every known disease by programming the virus to attack those bacteria, fungi, viruses, parasites etc.” It wasn’t wrong, he could in theory, with enough time program the virus to do that. It just wasn’t what he was trying to do at the time, not that he’d tell Dana of course.

Her face softened slightly as he said that and she chuckled sheepishly. “Well I suppose that’s a decent excuse….” She scratched the back of her head. “I guess trying to make the ultimate cure for anything and everything is something that would make one forget about family.”

She visibly relaxed from her offensive stance earlier and quieted down as she mulled over what he said. He dropped his chicken after he finished gnawing on it and looked at her. “So what have you been up to for the past couple of years?”

She grinned slightly. “Well I’m a journalist now, moved to the city, tracked you down and….” Her grin died off. “Yeah that’s kind of it, was trying to find you Alex.” She laid her head down on the table. “Fuck this is so underwhelming.”

He grinned and reached over to ruffle her hair, to which she immediately snapped her head back up and smacked his hand away. “Hey don’t touch my hair it takes a bit to get it this way!”

He raised an eyebrow. “Really? Does that time include when you were sleeping, because it looks like you just decided to put on clothes and come over here. Nothing more, nothing less.”

She blew a raspberry at him as she ran her hands through her hair, ‘fixing’ it back to the way it was. The corners of his lip tugged upwards in a smile while he shook his head at her, she hadn’t grown up at all had she. His slight smile disappeared as Cross walked back towards them, his hand held up to his ear again as he listened to the operator on the other end.

Cross finished his trip across the room and leaned down towards Mercer. “The Princess is outside as you requested, she’s ready to help in any way she can. Should I bring her in?”

“Yes, better to do this sooner, rather than later.” Cross nodded and left the room once again, the two guards reappearing by the door as he left.

“Did I just hear him right in saying that one of the Princesses are outside?” Dana asked. He looked towards her to see a major smile growing on her face, so much so that it’d put the Cheshire cat to shame. Frankly it was creepy as fuck.

“Yes?” He answered questioningly, wanting to know why she was grinning so much. 

“Is there any chance that I can interview her?” ….Oh right she said she was a journalist now. Not every day she would get a chance to interview an alien princess, and in the next few months she’d never get another chance.

He shrugged as he stood up and dusted off his pants. “If she says yes I suppose, after she does what I asked her to do.”

Dana clapped her hands together and follow after him, as he left the room, the two guards taking up a flanking position on either side of him. “I’ll be set for life after this interview, I’ll be able to just screw around on the internet an--”

Everything went white.
> On the Greene Side
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

She shook her head at her cameraman as they both sat waiting on the back end of the news van, waiting for the Princess to arrive, at his horrible joke. “That is the most racist thing I’ve heard from you yet.”

He laughed, straightening an imaginary tie, happy about his joke. “Hey Jews and Harry Potter don’t have that in common ya’know.”

She rolled her eyes and at the crest of their roll she noticed the helicopters moving away from their patrol pattern around the tower of Gentek. Elbowing him she pointed up and scrambled for her microphone, while he scrambled for the camera and flipped a few switches elsewhere in the van.

Checking to make sure that her earpiece was in she stood as best she could in front of the Gentek HQ, waiting for her partner to finish picking up his camera. When he finally picked it up he immediately started counting down with his fingers, not giving her a moment to spare, and also at the same exact time as she could hear the distinct whine of the helicopters coming back. As he made a fist her ear-piece came to life. “Hello Patricia, you mind telling us what is going on down there?”

She smiled and gave a nod to the camera, turning around to point at the Gentek building behind her. “Hello to you too John, today is a special occasion as Princess Twilight Sparkle herself is coming down, as per a request by Gentek to help supply them with Radiation for their experiments. We just saw the three helicopters guarding Gentek fly off, so we’re expecting it to be for escorting the Princess.”

As if on cue the helicopters came back into view with a golden carriage in the middle, a helicopter on either side and one behind the carriage, slowly gliding downwards to land in the compound. “Unfortunately we aren’t allowed inside due to the hundreds of precautions surrounding the compound but I can tell you what we do know.”

“Please do Patricia, we’re always happy to hear about how things are going with Humanity’s last hope.” She nodded and walked out of the frame slightly as her partner zoomed in on the carriage slowly moving downwards.

“Well from what we’ve been able to glean, Dr. Alex Mercer has requested access to more magical radiation and since she’s in the area Princess Twilight decided to come down and bathe a room of their choosing with magic. Other sources specify that she is giving them the Conversion Serum so they can reverse its effects following the deployment of Gentek’s cure.” She shrugged as the cameraman moved back to her since the carriage disappeared.

“All our sources are conflicting in nature but all that they have in common is that Princess Twilight Sparkle is doing what she can to help Gentek with their cu--” She was cut off as the world went grey and everything turned into varying shades of black and white. 

The building behind her seemed to warp inwards before the middle of it exploded outwards in a horrific display of metal, steel and glass, showering the streets around her and the cameraman in a sharp rain, slicing into their clothes and skin as it fell to the ground. The glass and steel rain continued for at least five seconds before it died down , leaving a dull ringing in their ears.

Patricia waved incoherently and turned around in a small lazy circle as she regained her senses, while the cameraman turned his camera upwards towards the smoking building, now missing a house sized chunk in its side. Smoke billowed outwards from the spot, as the helicopters fluttered around trying to figure what was going on, meanwhile on the ground every soldier visible and not were sprinting to and fro as a klaxon sounded from inside the compound.

Her earpiece buzzed, but remained incoherent for several moments, finally making sense of what John was saying on the other end. “Patricia! Are you okay, what’s going on down there!?”

She brushed her cheek free of a liquid leaking from it, before answering. “Gentek has just been attacked.” She said not believing it herself before saying it again, with more force. “Gentek’s just been attacked! All the Blackwatch soldiers are running around and I see one less helicopter in the sky now!”

She coughed slightly as she stared at the building, not believing it’d just been bombed, while her cameraman kept sweeping over the scene with his camera. She stood there for a minute before noticing something about the building. She asked as she saw bits of the building starting to fall at an angle. “Is it tilting?”

As an answer a large crack sounded and it suddenly slumped to the side, a cascade of debris falling on those unlucky enough to be below. “Oh my god Gentek is completely falling apart.” She said to herself, covering her mouth.

Unbeknownst to either of them a lone figure stood near the top of the building, hanging onto the window frame as she looked out below. As the building gave another mighty crack she stepped out and let herself plummet to the ground.

The cameraman and reporter stood there in silence as the building fell further over, slowly but surely collapsing onto its side as the Blackwatch soldiers cleared the surrounding area and a few tanks drove out onto the street, sending cars careening into others as they dodged the massive rolling tanks. 

As they all flooded out of the compound one figure seemed to stand out amidst the confusion. Orange raggedy hair that grew out in messy clumps, pale skin that stood out amidst the flood of black gas-masks, a skintight black jumpsuit that looked nothing like the other black suits. A few of the Blackwatch noticed this too, and drew their guns on her, their tri-optics focused down their sights as they threatened to shoot her.

Patricia and the cameraman weren't sure what happened, but the next thing they knew the six that drew their guns on her were sent flying through the air, one of whom went smashing into the news van, ripping the camera out of the camera man's hands as the van was shoved onto it side. The woman was replaced by an eruption of dust, and another down the street, and another and one more before the eruptions of dust disappeared leaving the cameraman and reporter staring dumbfounded at the superhuman woman that just disappeared.
> On the Purple Side
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Okay notes check, guards check, hazmat suit check, serum check, helicopter escort?” She paused for a moment to make sure that those beating sounds were indeed beside her and not echoing of the buildings around her, and smiled as she saw the black helicopter hovering beside her carriage. “Check, meet Dr. Mercer and help him, not check. Okay that’s everything that I can do checked.”

Smiling to herself she looked over her pad one last time, re-reading the checklist again before shoving it into her saddlebags next to her, containing everything that Gentek had requested and some other things she thought they might want. With nothing else to do she looked out the windows of her carriage at the glass-paned buildings speeding past. She idly flicked at her hair but otherwise watched the sky-scrapers, appropriately named, reach far above even the cloud cities of the pegasi.

She’d been traveling through the US for little over a week, visiting the Golden-Gate bridge, Grand Canyon, Space Needle and now the Big Apple, all in an effort to boost relations. Even if there weren’t humans at some of the locations, it still wasn’t lost on her what they’d managed to accomplish without magic. Buildings that would put even Canterlot Castle, and her own castle, to shame. Then this city, packed full of millions that lived day to day packed so tight was something she still had trouble managing to believe how many people could be contained.

Then there were the machines they built to make up for their ineptness towards anything magical, such as the ones flying in a triangular formation around her. Easily keeping pace with some of the more seasoned Royal Guards, maneuvering easy in the slight buffets of winds that kept curving around the buildings and the gleaming weapons on them. Not things she personally liked but the way they operated she loved, just so fascinating in how they directed missiles and the like without magic. Or at least so she heard according to the one guard that saw the rockets being launched.

And down below, carriages capable of outrunning Rainbow Dash, as long as she was on the ground. Those things were mundane and common, not at all special compared to the other contraptions that had been built, and she’d still been witnessing more and more. It was a shame that magic was the equivalent to radiation for them, their races could have benefited so much from one another. 

Though that’s why she was here today, to help Gentek with their own cure, though she had her doubts. It took some of the greatest minds in Equestria and many a human scientist to manufacture the serum they were using, which still had the occasional problem. The way they spelt their company’s name didn’t help either.

Speaking of which, as they rounded another glass building she saw said company’s headquarters just ahead. Along with a veritable horde of soldiers, metal boxes, not to mention the vibe she was getting from the building itself. Sent a slight shiver down her spine, which she chalked up to being nervous about all the soldiers surrounding the building she was going to go into.

She hummed to herself as she slung her saddles across her back, much to the dismay of many ponies she knew, who always complained that it wasn’t Princess-like of her. Not that she cared, she could take care of herself. The whine of the helicopters lessened as her carriage descended down, while they stayed up, into a cleared out space where a noticeable number of the soldiers were gathered around. Even a few of those massive metal boxes, with sticks coming out pointed in her general direction.

Not exactly a sign of peace, though she did remember some of the attitudes of people she met across the US. She waited in the carriage until her pegasi guards unhitched themselves from the carriage and walked over to the side, eyes wandering over the crowd of soldiers. None of whom showed their faces, all being clad in the same black uniform with mask, guns held at the ready to their sides, held up to the sky on their shoulders, some still in slings.

With a few more seconds of looking she noticed one face that wasn’t covered by a mask, an older man with gray hair and a beard walking towards them, labcoat floating out behind him. Flanked by six more soldiers, one of which wore a white version of the same uniform everybody else wore, seeming to demand respect from the black-clad ones.

As the seven humans reached the halfway point the scientist quickened his pace as a mad smile splayed across his face. “Ah hello Princess Sparkle it’s a pleasure to meet you in the flesh!” He half-shouted waving his hand, before actually coming close to her.

She gave him a light smile and said truthfully, “It’s always a pleasure to help somebody out, especially when their entire race is at stake.”

He slowed as he neared her and lenaed down slightly before grimacing as a sharp crack sounded from his back. He swore under his breath before straightening back up and extending his hand towards her from there. “I’m afraid I’m a bit too old to talk to you on your level Princess, so I’m afraid I can’t be more courteous.”

She shook his hand and laughed slightly. “It’s alright I assure you, so let’s move onto business? I have a feeling we can chit-chat while walking there.”

He nodded before turning around abruptly, almost hitting her in the face with his lab-coat. “All to true Princess, so if you’ll follow me to Mercer we can get started on the tests.” Her guards moved to be beside her as the scientist moved away, and as soon as she moved to take a hoof step forward everything changed.

The world drained of color, seeming to slow slightly. She didn’t even have a moment to puzzle over it as the building in front of her exploded, a massive shockwave moving outwards from it throwing the old man onto his back and shoving over a few unprepared people. A few other people still fell, even though they were caught less off-guard. That reason being massive pieces of steel or glass flying outwards from the building, flying everywhere.

She threw up a barrier around herself just as the first piece came within reach, but pinged harmlessly off into the ground besides her, followed by dozens more pebble sized pieces. Eyes clenched shut she kept the purple barrier up, only opening her eyes when the pings on her shield stopped. Her mouth moved to ask if everypony was okay, but no sound came out audible over the ringing. When did it start ringing?

All around her she could see the soldiers springing to life, running to take up positions around the compound, guns pointed outwards and inwards, several of which were pointed at her. She ignored them and kept looking around, noticing that the scientist was being hoisted to his feet by the white-clad soldier and another black-clad one, dragging him off towards the entrance. Up above she could see smoke billowing out of the building, a black cloud of death and despair as humanity’s last hope lay burning above.

And she was going to be blamed for it, judging by the hostility of those pointing guns at her. Slowly the ringing died off and she could hear them screaming at her to get down on the ground. She lowered the barrier but continued to ignore them as she turned to her guards, meeting the sight of a massive steel bar piercing his chest-plate going right-through to the ground, a river of blood running up and down the metal bar.

She stared and locked eyes with her pegasus guard, as the blood dribbled out of his mouth, mouth silently forming words but no sound coming out. One of her other guards slammed into her side, and made her tumble to the side as another piece of the building fell from above and slammed into the earth. If it hadn’t been for that guard she would have died. She made to say thanks when she noticed the small pool of blood slowly spreading outwards, a nice reflection of her agape mouth and frizzy hair, a slight trail of tears rolling down her cheek through the ash that had built up from the explosion, showing in the blood. She briefly noticed that her crown was gone, before another guard touched her.

The part he touched? Her wing. Something he shouldn’t have touched, much less yanked, she vaguely thought to herself as he dragged her away from the burning building, a raging inferno starting to build up as the steel beams holding the building up started to melt. Inside the building was hell, unfortunate souls running out flailing their arms as their compatriots tried to put out the fires on them.

A few soldiers came over to her and the guards dragging her away, shoved the guards aside and fully picked her up and started running towards the building that surrounded Gentek HQ. Their guns swept the skies above and the ground below, expecting another attack any second, while her guards took to the air to watch her from above and to stop any threats that might pop out.

As they neared the entrance of one of the buildings they unceremoniously dropped her, like a sack of potatoes, beside the scientist from earlier. Didn’t they drag him off in another direction? Several loud bangs sounded as the soldiers engaged some targets somewhere. And where’d her guards go? The skies were empty of her guards now, only populated by the helicopters.

Her head lazily rolled back and forth from side to side, while she was swept up in thoughts. The guard with a steel beam through his chest. The one that had sacrificed his life to save her. The guards that had just gone missing.

“Wha-wha-what are you-ou?” Echoed a ghastly voice in front of her, like that demon Celestia had shown her once upon a time. Normally she would have jumped as she hadn’t been paying attention but she felt to drained to even react. She just looked at the human with the messy, ragged red hair and black jumpsuit, and slight amount of blood on her right cheek. The human in turn looked at her, lips tightly pressed together in thought, in her ashy, crownless state, crumpled up against the wall

Her hoof slowly rose to point at that cheek. “You’re hurt.” She said dumbly.

The human shook her head and grabbed her hoof, bringing it to her face and rubbing it against her face. “No no no, better.” She paused her rubbing to point at her. “You hurt, not me. I’m better.”

Twilight laughed slightly. “I wish I could be better, I’m not happy right now.” As soon as she mentioned wishing she could be better the human grew a large smile across her face, replacing the tight lips.

“You want to be better?” Twilight gave a dumb nod, not sure of what was going on anymore. The human patted her head and leaned in to give her a kiss on her forehead, before pulling back and smiling at her. “Not often do one want to be better, no need to worry, you’ll be better soon.”

Twilight blinked and the human was gone, making her question if she was even there. “Who doesn’t want to be better?”
> On The Red Side
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Wait.

Wait.

Wait.

Movement! Heat!

Scattered, space suddenly a lot bigger. Recollect.

Heat? Warmth. No, too much warmth. Hot!

Move! Move! Move!

Falling.

Not falling. On something warm, not hot. Food? Food. Eat.
Lots of food. More food than it.

It detects more food a short distance away, and after a moment of indicision over which food to it, it had the brilliant idea to split.

Lots of food. Lots of cells to replace. Complicated cells in a web tangled together too. It grows tired after assimilating so much. It feels a similar sentiment from it's other part.

So it goes to sleep, finished with the replacement and now to let each new cell grow into it's purpose, and then improve. As darkness takes it, a mental image appears before it, of brother and sister playing in a park.
> UN Live, Breaking News
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Breaking news from Gentek HQ.” Tom frantically said to the camera as he shuffled some papers around in front of him, his suit unbuttoned in the front slightly from being called in early. The seats where the other representatives would sit were empty, as he had been called in four hours before they normally addressed the planet. The others would come in ten minutes or so thanks to a traffic jam, and him being there just because of his constant gossiping with some of the assistants.

Behind him was a streaming image of what used to be Gentek Headquarters but now was nothing more than a heap of concrete, volcano of smoke and horde of soldiers swarming around it. “As you can see behind me, Gentek HQ has been attacked by an unknown assailant, resulting in a complete loss of research inside, and all personnel. Dr. Mercer and Dr. Koenig are both missing and presumed dead, the two main heads of programs affiliated with virus research.”

Dropping the papers onto the desk he continued, skimming over the papers for their info. “Sources indicate that the attack was non-magical in nature and was in fact a human made bomb, or suspected to be a bomb since no rockets, missiles or etc. were seen hitting the building.”

The image of Gentek behind him disappeared to be replaced by a woman with red hair and wearing a black jumpsuit, seen standing on a car, with the sky behind her. A grin showed on her face while the sun gave her pale skin an illuminating glow. “This woman was seen escaping from Gentek and is being currently investigated for relations to the attack.”

The woman was replaced by a slideshow of her doing inhuman stunts over buildings, cars, slamming through said cars and more. “It’s currently unknown how she does this but as you can see behind me she is able to do superman level things and it is suspected that Blackwatch or the PER are behin--”


> Run Like Hell
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

The air was stuffy, filled with smoke and burning flesh, complemented by the dust hanging low in the air like a fine mist. To help the setting more dust trickled down from the building that was in danger of falling further in on itself, right onto her nose as she took in a breath, blood freely pooled around her dry and caked around her figure. When the dust flooded into her nostrils she instantly sat up and started to choke, eyes watering with the effort required to remove the dust from its once wet home in her lungs.

As soon as she dislodged the dust from her lungs she took in as much of the dry air as she could to utter the following about how her body felt as if somebody had thrown her into a woodchipper, dumped the chips into a pulverizer and then set it all aflame. “Holy fucking Jesus on a pogo stick.”

Dana rolled onto her side as she waited for her throbbing body to lessen in its intensity, eyes wandering the dimly lit cave of where she was, the only source of light being a low burning flame in danger of dying out. Her eyes traced the outlines of the rocks all around her until they settled on something hauntingly human and familiar, a head popping out from under some pieces of rubble.

“Alex.” Dana gasped, before bolting upright and scrambling over to him, more dust kicked into the air as she slid to a stop next to him. She ignored the fact that the way the rubble was positioned it should have crushed his entire chest and made him nothing more than a bloody splatter, and instead focused on where to grab the rubble. The moment she saw a handhold she grabbed it with both hands and bent her knees, preparing to pull up with all her might.

Despite it being more than double her size she focused on getting ready to push up.

So when the rubble flew up in her hands like it was nothing more than a pair of ten pound weights.  She looked up confused for a moment before shaking her head of those thoughts and looking down to her brother who looked miraculously unharmed. The only evidence of him being hurt was the dust all over his labcoat and broken glasses.

Bending at the knees she freed one of her hands from holding up the piece of rubble and grabbed her brother by the collar of his labcoat and drug him out from under. The moment he was out from under the rubble she dropped it, letting it slam into the ground. She flinched as it made an unpleasant cracking sound behind her, but otherwise ignored it immediately dropping down to her knees to check on her brother.

Leaning down she hovered her ear near his lips, hoping to hear or feel any sign of breathing. She hissed in pain as nothing tickled her ear, sound or air. Rearing back she grabbed her brother by the shoulders and shook him vehemently hoping for him to come to. “Come on you fucking bastard, I did not just spend fucking months to get to you, for you to just die the first day we talk!”

He responded by his head flailing around while she shook him, her eye twitching. He couldn’t be dead. He’d done things she could only dream of, protected her, saved her and then ditched her for some reason. He couldn’t die before she knew why, he just couldn’t. Wiping away the water that had somehow gotten onto her cheek in all this dry air she leaned down and picked him up, infinitely lighter than before, and draped him across her shoulder. 

Standing back up she looked around at her little cave of rubble they had somehow managed to be fortunate enough to fall on top of them. With one arm curled around her brother to hold him in place she looked at all the pieces around them for some type of pattern or sign signifying it was going in the right direction to get out and help for her brother.





“I want all the bodies over there in a pile, don’t worry about seeing who’s who! I don’t need to remind you about the contamination problem the corpses pose! And where the hell is that incinerator?” Cross screamed into the air as he surveyed the Blackwatch personnel running around, dozens of scientists in biohazard suits now running around too scraping up various things off the ground. Some could be the virus, other bits could be people, he was pretty sure the bits under that rock were pony in nature.

As of right now he had tanks and helicopters scouring the perimeter, which was four blocks away, supported by a hundred infantry evenly-spaced throughout the area and some ponies that had came running as soon as the explosion had happened. For once he was thankful for them being there, that outpost they had set up had came through in the end to help set up the perimeter. He turned around to watch one of said tanks driving past the entrance to Gentek HQ as the one roving tank, running over a car in the progress.

He would have preferred to chased down Greene but he didn’t have the manpower to keep both Gentek secure and chase her. Nevermind the fact he had no info on where she was. So right now he was stuck protecting the toxic pit that had become Gentek HQ from anyone being infected, they didn’t need another Hope or Two Bluff outbreak on their hands with Greene running around too.

Turning away from the exit of the base he strode back towards the wreckage and idly noticed the Apache and Troop Carrier helicopters currently on stand-by. Presumably hit by some flying wreckage while flying around earlier, but as far as he could tell they were fine. His eyes moved away from that and to the small group of Blackwatch soldiers currently looking towards the rubble, not even pretending to be at least guarding it.

He scowled, their fucking job was to protect America from the Virus and here there were a few idiots standing around with their thumbs stuck up their asses. His fingers curled slightly as he started walking directly toward them, none in their group noticing him, even though a few of those wandering around did and steered clear of him. No, they were all too engrossed in talking in a little huddle by the edge of the rubble, where humanity’s last hope had been.

By the time one of them had noticed him he was within whispering distance, but instead he took the moment to start yelling at them. “And what the fuck are you six doing here doing nothing but jack shit!?!”

One of the men jumped up slightly while the others immediately saluted. A few tense moments passed before the one that had jumped spoke first. “Cross sir, we think we’re hearing something under the rubble but we aren’t sure. Since its contaminated by the Virus we thought it would be better not to investigate immediately and first make sure we were hearing it right.”

That soldier was immediately smacked upside the head. “You didn’t think to fucking tell somebody you’re hearing something underneath the rubble of a place housing the equivalent of the zombie apocalypse?” The soldiers all glanced at each other slightly, hands still raised to their heads in a salute. Cross only noticed this thanks to the subtle turning of heads.

He shook his head and moved closer to the rubble to try and hear what they were apparently talking about. So he crouched down and cupped one hand around his ear, still scowling at the soldiers, when he heard the faintest of sounds. One that definitely wasn’t part of the building settling or anything else like that. He leaned slightly more towards it.

“Come on damn it, where’s the way out?” He immediately jumped away and signaled the others to back up too. There was no way in hell anybody survived that building’s collapse fine enough to be wandering around looking for an exit. The six immediately around him brought their guns up to bear as they backed away too.

One hand drifted up to his shoulder where a radio was mounted on his armor. Pressing the button to turn it on a hiss came through. “Red Crown be advised we have contact, possible survivor under the rubble of Gentek.” While he was saying that his other arm, the one equipped with a custom grenade launcher, lifted itself until it was pointed at the wreckage.

A female operator answered back. “Understood, continue with quarantine and report any developments.”

“Acknowledged Red Crown.” He simply said, immediately after which he grabbed his baton and flicked it out to the side. He glanced to the soldiers at his sides and saw that the others inside the compound had noticed, even those that hadn’t had any radios to hear his transmission, and were looking towards them. Some even started to wander closer various guns at the ready, one man on the roof even had his rpg trained at them.

Staring intently at the rubble, not willing to send one of his men in to check, the ten seconds that passed felt like minutes. Nothing happening except him dreading the idea that somebody had been infected, for if they had talked… he shook his head to rid himself of that line of thoughts. No Two Bluffs was a freak accident, they hadn’t had a chance to take care of it at the time, at the beginning.

It had to be somebody normal, just with a lot of luck on their side. While those thoughts ran rampant through his head some of the dust started to move on the rubble, all of those who were now paying attention immediately shouldering their guns. Cross could hear the voice again as it seemed  to grow louder, getting clearer like before.

All at once a piece of the once proud headquarters for Gentek, the most advanced genetics company in the world, found itself flying at him. He froze for a second before dive-rolling to the side, the piece easily ten times his weight sailing bye like a paper airplane. The entire compound grew quiet as they waited for the dust that the rubble had caused with the sudden movement, to dissipate.

Cross jumped back onto his feet and pressed the button to make his baton spark to life, lightning racing up and down it’s length, twenty times the lethal amount coursing in something that he could fit in his pocket. But the shadow that appeared in the dust storm made that feel like nothing, that person being responsible for sending that huge piece of building and concrete flying. 

One hand of the figure raised itself up to shield against the sun. “Oh fucking hell it’s bright out here.” The voice sounded vaguely familiar and only when it stepped out of the dust and fully into the light, her brother draped across her shoulder like a ragdoll, completely devoid of scratches or dust, did he realize who it was. Dana Mercer.

She looked towards him with relief, then slight confusion as she realized the amount of guns pointed at her. She opened her mouth to speak but was interrupted by Cross’s one uttered word that echoed across the silent compound. “Fire.”

In an instant all that became of what was once Dana Mercer was now a storm of bullets, shrapnel, and silent disgust towards her. Two of the rpg wielding men on the roofs fired their shots off, rockets joining the death cloud and signalling everyone else to stop shooting, Cross himself not having fired a shot. He scowled as the compound was filled with clacking noises,the sound being everyone took the opportunity to exchange magazines, regardless of how much they actually fired off.

This gave Dana an opening which she immediately took, exploding out of the dust and past Cross in one movement before landing back on the ground and dashing out of the compound in less than two seconds. He swore under his breath before running over to the Apache currently docked, his hand going up to his radio. “Red Crown be advised we have a confirmed Runner escaping Gentek, repeat Runner escaping!”

The pilots that had been busy waiting were performing last minute checks on their systems, rotors already spinning, despite being suspected of being damaged as Red Crown responded. “Understand Cross, Strike Package incoming to your position.” Red Crown turned her attention to all the others within the city. “We have a confirmed Runner escaping Gentek, all units be advised Runner will be heading for the perimeter. On sighting shoot to kill and advise others of your positions.”

By this time Cross had jumped into the Apache’s backseat so he could get into the chase himself, and the rotors began to lift him and the troop carrier next to him. His fingers curled around the joystick but let the pilot fly it instead, intending to be the one to shoot as the roaming tank radioed in their position just down the street.

The two helicopters spun around, crushing their occupants against the walls as they sped off in that direction, catching up to the tank in seconds just as it was turning a corner and the gunner was shooting the machinegun on top of it at something they couldn’t see. More radio calls from the east side perimeter alerting the tank to move out of the way as they readied their own guns. Said tank immediately slammed on its brakes at the corner just as Cross’s apache turned the corner, giving them a clear view of Dana running down the street as four tanks, one carrier helicopter and dozens of Blackwatch soldiers opened fire.

She turned to the building to her right and instead of running in, like he thought she would, began to run up it vertically. Defying the laws of gravity no less. So the street below exploded in debris for no reason as the bullet trailed her up the building. The pilot pulled back as hard as he could on the joystick to get them going up, while Cross impatiently tapped his fingers on the trigger buttons. 

As soon as the pilot neared them about three fourths of the way up Cross choked the trigger, the minigun under him giving off a deafening roar as hot lead came at her in a flood. Everything around her became concrete dust but she kept running, before leaping above them and clearing the rooftop. “Fucking hell!”

Pulling up after them he saw them just for a moment as she leaped off. “Those in pursuit be advised she’s heading back down to street level, she just leaped off the roof.” A chorus of yes’s and what the fuck’s sounded off the radio, while they veered down, two apache’s flanked by two carriers lighting up the streets below.

A scowl appeared momentarily on his face before shaking his head, if he didn’t kill them now then the entire city would be in even worse danger than just Greene. His fingers migrated to the missiles release and the aiming system, waiting for the moment to get a lock on Dana as she ran through the populated streets of New York and made his men rip hundreds to shreds. They all turned the corner, the helicopters all slowing down for the turn thanks to the massive buildings around them, while Cross kept on a direct course after her.

In moments the laser system came to life and he trained it on her, her constant jumping over cars, trucks and weaving side to side interfering slightly. But the moment he heard a ping signifying he had a lock he squeezed everything on the joystick, missiles firing off, minigun ripping holes in her again and overall making the street explode. This was helped as some of the car’s fuel tanks around her caught fire in the ensuing explosion, throwing carbits, people bits and street bits everywhere, crashing through a few of the glass-paned buildings.

The pilot brought them in over it and made a small lazy circle as he looked for any signs of life from her, during which time the others caught up. But considering how she survived the first time… “I want this area searched top to bottom, no stone left unturned.” An affirmative came over the radio and they all moved off to do as ordered. The pilot began moving them forward and Cross’s eyes moved around to look at everything, eyes briefly settling on a pony standing on the balcony looking back at him, before they both looked away as a duo. The pony moving back inside and Cross looking at the person standing on the other balcony.






He shivered slightly as he closed the doors to his balcony, bathing the room in darkness again. That man just murdered so many people trying to get one girl and her friend, that was just sad, what did they do to him? Speaking of which. “Hey can you turn on the light? It’s right next to the doorframe.” He said to what was once an empty room.

His new friend obliged and the sparsely decorated room filled with only a couch, plants and a table was brought into light, revealing the girl that they had just been trying to kill. Just by looking at her eyes and the fear in them he could tell she hadn’t done anything wrong, but he was wondering how she jumped up to his balcony. She gave him a thankful nod while her friend still lay draped over her shoulder.

“Why don’t you take a seat? I’ll go make some tea.” He said trotting past her and into the kitchen. She silently moved over to the couch and laid her friend on it, slumping down against one of its legs and panting slightly.
> Scalpel
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Head throbbing, muscles aching, bright light too bright. He grumbled under his breath as he flexed his muscles, pain shooting through his limbs as he struggled to right himself wherever he was. Last thing he remembered was Dana outlined by a fuckton of white behind her, as if it was the god damn rapture. It was still just as bright now as it was then.

As soon as he thought that the light died down as if it knew his thoughts and wanted to make him more comfortable. He just gave a grunt the moment he finally righted himself and rubbed at his eyes, not caring to take a look where he was. Probably fainted or something and was in the medical lab, would explain the bright ass light in his face when he first woke up. Lowering his hands from his face he looked around, seeing completely nothing.

Not that he turned blind, no he could see his hands fine. It was the fact there was nothing to see, at all, no floor, no sky, nothing but inky blackness. That fact sent Mercer to his feet as he jumped up from his sitting position and looked around in a slight frenzy, completely confused as to what the fuck was going on. He kept whispering fuck under his breath as he kept turning in circles, his lab-coat twirling right with him like a cliche cape would move on a villain. He eventually sat back down as the lack of a floor was making him nauseous not to mention the storm of question going through his head.

Such as where was he? Where was here? How was he breathing? Was he in hell? No that question was too stupid even for the fucking situation he was in. To help with that he laid back down on the ground, so as to keep himself from looking down into an abyss that managed to have a floor that he couldn’t feel. There was no pressure on his back, which there should’ve been seeing as how he was on a floor, but since there was no pressure that meant there was just empty space. Which couldn’t be because he could feel that he was lying down where gravity was holding him down.

Closing his eyes he rubbed his temples, the thoughts racing through his head starting to become tangled beyond recognition. When he felt something finally pressing up against his back though he stopped his line of thinking to anything beyond, “What was that?”

His hands brushed something thin and a little bit cold, fabric. He opened his eyes yet again and was greeted with the white tiled ceiling of Gentek’s medical room, absent of any noise though which was completely off. In silence he sat up once more and looked around, the completely empty and lifeless area unnerving him, there would at least have been the buzz of people in the halls or Blackwatch troopers marching up and down said halls.

But no. All that there was, was the bed he was on and three others, a long counter with cabinets above and below it, a dozen or so seats, the window above said chairs and then the door. Out the window he could see only the wall and an empty cart set beside it. As if all that wasn’t a hint that something was wrong, he was still wearing his clothes.

In this Gentek building if you fell sick, they had you stripped, took samples of your blood, skin, spit and analyzed your clothes. In between that and the period that the test were finished you were dressed in much the same attire as a normal hospital patient would have. The main precaution they had was a keypad on the door to keep them locked in, randomized each time somebody was admitted. If that didn’t work, they had professional security to take care of it.

He felt as if he should head out the door but he waited, thinking over his situation. When he started moving it wasn’t to the door but instead to the drawers by the counter, where he started opening the drawers at random until he found what he needed. A scalpel laid before him, glistening under the faint lights. He reached for it, then stopped.

Why would he need this, asked a voice in his head. He wouldn’t need a scalpel for where he was going. But how did he know that, he didn’t even know if here was here. He needed it just in case, but he shouldn’t need it because he might hurt somebody with it. At the same time that was the damn point! His hand trembled above the scalpel as he argued with himself about the idea of picking up a fucking scalpel.

Since when did he care about hurting others? He fucking clawed his way through the opposition to get here. He beat those that so much as insulted his sister. He worked on the damned Blacklight virus, hell he was the one who fucking made it! He knew exactly what it’d do because he made it that way!

As those thoughts continued a pain started in his head, as if to dissuade him from thinking like that. But before too long he managed to snatch up the scalpel and walked out of the room, ignoring the pain as best as he could.

The moment he exited the room the pain became sudden and sharp, just like the scalpel he held in his right hand. Growling he stumbled forward down the empty halls of Gentek, left hand groping at the wall to help right himself. It was fucking protesting him grabbing a scalpel, something that was as common to him as a chain restaurant was on late nights. Trying to keep him from being him, and that was fucking insulting. Another step forward and it hit hard and sudden, as if plunging a knife into his head, making him drop to the ground in agony.

Hands clutching at the sides of his head and scalpel smashed between Mercer hissed, glaring at the empty hallway knowing that whatever brought him here was responsible for bringing him to his knees and reducing him to a fucking whimpering child. Because of a scalpel. It was afraid of him with a scalpel. Grinning madly he used the wall as a support as he slowly stood back up, the knuckles on his hand holding the scalpel turning white as he strangled the handle. Whatever protests that were in his mind before were gone now, replaced with finding what was responsible.

Stumbling down the halls he kept turning corners, the pain slowly fading as he grew more and more intent on finding the person. This wasn't his first time feeling a bit murderous, just the first time he felt on doing something on his own behalf, all the previous times being because of his sister. Although he never did murder somebody before, this would be welcome. Alien thoughts in his mind. Pain for picking up a scalpel of all things. Being stuck in an empty Gentek facility that was completely deserted and never seemed to end he noted as he turned another corner, one that should've been the exit.

He growled and kept moving, ears twitching for any type of sound beyond his own clumsy walk. Then he heard it, pitter-pattering against the building. Rain to his right. Looking down that way he saw nothing but another featureless hall, but it was the best he had right now. Pushing off the wall he started to jog down the halls, twisting and turning after the sound of rain, his rage simmering down to a mere boil instead of a volcano as he continued. The scalpel however remained ever present, glinting under every light he passed, the glint moving as he twirled it in his fingers as if it were a mere pencil.

After minutes of walking he finally came upon the exit once more, this time the door leading out actually being there, the glass panes being battered by rain. He almost didn't see the floating rainbow hair of a certain monarch out in the middle of the surrounding compound, waiting for him. He did see though and slowed down to a brisk walk, the scalpel easily sliding into his lab-coat's pocket. Now that he'd seen her he recognized the setting of where he was. 

Alien thoughts in his head. Pain to dissuade him from picking up objects with a violent intent. Seemingly endless corridors where those alien thoughts would have gotten him used to the idea and ready for a big fucking talk. It all sounded like some converted people he had read about online, forced and free-willing. Somebody had slipped him a fucking conversion potion and he was going to turn into a fucking horse, but not before the 'nice' monarch got him used to the idea. He scowled, of course it would be this when he felt he was close to finishing the virus and removing its side-effects, this of course would fucking happen.

Pausing at the doors with his hands on the handles he looked at his hands. From what he read though, by now he'd at least be losing his fingers, but that wasn't the case he thought as he flexed said digits. A smile played at his face, of course he wouldn't let some damnable potion change his mind, they could change his body all they want but his fucking mind wasn't something they could change. Unless it was like his virus. But how could a race that called science 'magic' be competent enough to do that? Answer, they weren't. Affirmed with his own thinking he pushed the glass doors open and strode towards the alabaster colored monarch, clad in her fancy golden jewelry and content smile looking at him, rainbow mane fluttering on by her head, probably thinking him already hers.

The metallic object bouncing against his outer thigh disagreed with that fact though. So he gave her a smile too, able to fake one easily to her as he strode forward, the rain giving off an eerie atmosphere. Just like everywhere else the parking lot around Gentek was empty too, only Celestia. So he just kept walking towards her, hands slipping into his pocket and nonchalantly brushing his hand against the scalpel. The smooth and cold edged blade of the scalpel. 

It reminded him of himself so much. Cold. Precise. And oh so ready to cut into his subject.
> Timor
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

She watched Alex as he came closer, a slight smile on his lips despite the foreboding atmosphere and the reason of why she was here. Although she was smiling too so she couldn’t say anything about him finally being happy that somebody besides himself was here. Her original reason was to talk to him about the burst of magic he gave off, earlier just like the same burst of magic Twilight gave off when she ascended, but different in accordance to it being a different person. When she had arrived she didn’t know what to expect, Twilight being the best and just barely ascending, but the last thing she expected was Mercer. But that drifted to the back of her mind in favor of several questions that needed to be asked before anything else.

So here she was, watching the man responsible for what would be arguably mankind’s greatest triumph, the ability to make every human compatible with magic without even using her or her sister’s blood. His white labcoat trailing behind him, ignoring the rain that should have made it plaster to his body.

All those thoughts traveled through her mind in the two seconds of his brisk twenty second walk to her, him stopping a few hooves in front of her, piercing eyes running up and down her figure as if she was just a curiousity. “Oh hello your majesty, if I would have known you were coming I might have asked you in, but alas I think we’re quite fine in the rain don’t you?” He asked with a mocking tone.

“I’m here because I need to talk to you.” She replied calmly, his only response being to cross his arms. “My student is sick because of what happened at Gentek, there’s reports of a superhuman in New York City and your sister seems to be another superhuman as well.” She paused as a look of confusion encompassed his face and he looked to the side. “This is all because of what happened at Gentek and I need to know exactly what you were making in there.”

Mercer kept looking to the side, one of his hands scratching his chin slightly, for a few moments before looking her back in the eye. “How about we play a game then, it seems that I’m out of the loop your highness.” He paused to look up at the raining sky. “Let’s go inside and talk, because I have a feeling this is going to be a looong talk.”

“Agreed.” With that said he turned around and walked back inside, with her trailing close behind him. His labcoat picked up the non-existent wind and fluttered behind him as she followed him through the winding halls of the building, the duo silent as they kept walking on, he obviously having a certain place in mind for their discussion.

But he broke the silence after a while as they walked past what looked eerily like a dissection table and into an elevator, her having to lower her head slightly to avoid hitting her horn against the ceiling. “Here’s the deal, you ask a question I answer if I want to.” He reached down to press a series of floors on the numberpad, while she shook her head at his arrogance. But alas she couldn’t say no, her student was sick and had been rambling according to Spike’s messages. “Then I ask a question and you tell me what I want to know, got it?”

If it wasn’t for the fact he held almost all the cards she would have laughed at him, instead she nodded when he looked at her. Content with that he leaned back against the wall of the elevator and watched the numbers flash as they passed by each floor, slower than they should have been. “Alright good, first question is why are you so sure that Gentek is responsible for making your student sick?”

Not bothering to look at him she simply stated the obvious reason. “You said yourself that your cure was a virus that you were having trouble with cultivating. An explosion of your entire facility would have released anything you might have created in your lab.” While telling him why she noticed that they past by one of the floors he had pressed.

His eyes shot open in surprise before he tried to cover it up by smoothing the sides of his hair and nodded. “Some of our experiments are more…. unique than others.” Was he surprised to hear about Gentek? That was two whole days ago.

“How unique?”

He smirked knowingly, shaking his head side to side. “Unique as in we built it from scratch, can’t say anything more, you know top secret. My turn, my sister what do you mean she’s superhuman? I haven’t seen much of the news lately, moved to a secure facility a bit ago for the final tests.” They passed by another floor that he pressed.

“I have heard about your sister on the news, from my most trusted ponies that she outran helicopters, ran up the side of a wall and was shot dozens if not hundreds of times. What would you have in that lab of yours that could make somebody like that?” The elevator started to slow.

“We are funded by military backers and contrary to what you might think I don’t know about everything that goes on in there. They could be working on a super soldier serum for all I know. What about this other superhuman, what’s he look like?”

“It’s a she and all I managed to get was some ramblings from my student and some weird reports from my ponies that still watch the news. A woman in a black jumpsuit and messy red hair. Who is she?” The elevator stopped.

He remained silent until the doors opened, face still, the floor indicator completely blank as he walked out into a barely lit corridor. He disappeared into the shadows, then re-appeared under the next light before turning a corner and all was still for several moments until he called out of the shadows, “Come now your highness, you’re the sun aren’t you? A little darkness shouldn’t be to frightening.”

The darkness wasn’t the problem.

It was the room itself that was wrong. Everything was wrong with it. The air tasted like poison, it was filled with hate and suffering so thick it felt like it was suffocating her very spirit. The lights felt like they would burn her if she stood under them. She knew it wasn’t real and couldn’t hurt her.

But it spoke a lot of him since it was all his imagining. Shivering slightly at his choice of rooms she stepped forward onto the steel floor, recoiling as her clad hoofs made a loud pang. She ignored it and kept walking forward, just looking ahead. “Ah wonderful she’s not afraid of the dark. That woman you’re asking about is a test subject of ours. My question, did your student ever meet said woman?”

She opened her mouth to answer, but stopped as she reached the first light, finding everything to be moving to the right slightly. Wondering what was going on she looked down to see the floor moving up and down, as if there were worms under the steel floor moving the world to the side and carrying her with it. Sneering at the disgusting thought she resumed her walking, albeit now trotting at a completely dignified rate. “She did, at Gentek when she was going to give your people some requested supplies. Why do you ask?”

She reached the second light and continued on, moving to the left slightly to compensate for the moving worm floor. “So your student the, fucking Alicorn of magic, met Mother? Ohohoho that is not going to be fun. What are her symptoms?” He asked, his voice taking a darker tone.

Turning the corner she squinted her eyes to try and see where she was going to see she was now walking down another hallway, this time with a light at the end of it. “No no no you answe--”

“I’m fucking asking what her symptoms are!” He screamed at her interrupting her protest, before he calmly continued. “I’m asking because what I’m about to say can either be bad or really really bad.”

Frowning at that half-answer and its implications she reached the end of the corridor, now finding herself in a room with lights all angled at a massive glass box. She answered back as she walked around the room, wondering both where he was and what this room was supposed to be. "She's had a massive fever, she's been throwing up blood, she's having auditory hallucinations--"

A clang from behind a row of consoles set up behind the lighted glass cage as he interrupted her. "Like voices?"

"Exactly like that and she's been having the disturbing feeling of being watched." She finished approaching the console and looking over it easily, to find no Mercer and just hundreds of buttons on the console. Inwardly sighing she moved onto the desks set on the side of the room she came from.

"How long has she had these symptoms?" He replied with the sound of metal on metal, screeching loud and painfully from what sounded like the opposite side of the room.

This was starting to get the slightest bit annoying, everything about this should be subconscious, he shouldn't be able to either move that fast without her noticing or able to project those sounds. "About two days now.”

A harsh laugh echoed in the oversized room. "You should kill her and burn the body, no hope for her now. Best you can hope for is she dies in complete agony, screaming in pain for days on end, vomiting blood and growing tumors. Worst case scenario she becomes a Runner and rips out your guts and then takes over the world.

That pissed her off. She had to put up with an arrogant human, hiding in the shadows taunting her with Twilight's death? No she would not put up with that, he wanted her to suffer in pain while he scurried in the shadows. Inwardly she was a fire, outwardly she was as cold as ice voice completely even. "You dare to tell me, to my face no less, that you want my beloved student, my practical daughter to suffer?"

"Oh you misinterpret me. If she dies painfully she's no danger to anybody because she'd be infected with a strain that'd kill itself off by the end of the month. A runner though?" He laughed again, a sad painful laugh as his footsteps echoed, this was like a night-terror, she thought as he continued talking, hidden in the shadows. "A runner will spread the plague, the strength of a thousand men in one, the resilience of a nuclear fallout shelter, the brilliance of a thinking, living virus co-ordinating the extinction of every race. Inside an Alicorn that's already a child-genius from what I've heard, has magic beyond you, can fly and could already punch through walls? Believe me when I say that you WANT her to suffer instead." 

What in Tartarus was he going on about, Twilight wouldn't do something like that under any circumstances. "I don't believe she'd do that." 

"No I don't think she would either. The virus though..." He trailed off with a click coming from the glass box. She glanced to it and didn't see him and instead kept walking around, staying closer to the lights as the serum had apparently given him some magical prowess.

"You underestimate her, she's faced far worse things before, without her magic. Without us to help her. She’s an Alicorn now, complete with all the boons to one’s body and mind, there's nothing in that lab of yours that could change her like that unless you yourself used magic." Trotting around the glass box she kept trying to see him, knowing he had to be in here somewhere.

A quiet tut from the glass box made her look again and there he was, sitting on a table that hadn't been there before. "You want to know what I hate about your kind?" He paused as if he wanted a response before continuing, pulling out a scalpel that had been in his pocket and twisting it back and forth, examining it. "You call your wonderful science something so fucking degrading. Magic." He made a gagging noise at the word. "Magic this, magic that, everything's got to be magic. And yet here I am, a man with something oh so more potent than any type of magic you could ever make."

He spread his arms to the side to emphasize himself. "I made a cure out of my weapon!" She frowned at that, their cure was a weapon before they arrived? They were insane. "I took something that could change life on a cellular level and crafted it to suit my needs, without so-called magic," He air-quoted the word to mock her. "It just pisses me off that you all think you're superior because of the way you fucking evolved!"

He stomped the ground in anger, the dream glass fracturing, along with his figure. Reddish lines appeared on his body, his face, his clothes even as he continued ranting. "I fucking clawed my way to the top, becoming who I am, abandoning who I was to create a better life and stop fending for each day of my life! And you want to know what fucking happens when I near my end-goal? You want to know!?!" He screamed jabbing the scalpel at her, while the red lines kept moving up and down, his face changing shape along with his body. He was finally being affected by the serum, but it wasn't working like it should.

"A motherfucking nation full of fucking poison air appears in the Pacific and I'm forced to abandon my years of work and re-direct it to saving the fucking human race!" The hand not holding the scalpel started to flatten into a hoof, then unflattened and re-flattened again, as if he was protesting the fact of changing. "Then some high and mighty bastards start moving into my country changing everybody into them! Fucking preaching about how their life is perfect, no poverty, no crime, nothing wrong like my whole life!" He continued to scream at her, his voice starting to become hauntingly familiar as with parts of his body, walking back and forth in the glass cage. Her mouth started to gape as his hair turned to a blue black little white dots splattered throughout the floating mane.

"I worked so god-damn hard to make the virus the way it was, as the fucking solution to the problem and then you all come along and force me to change it! Fucking! Change! My! Life's! Work!" Her sister's voice screamed at her, lights flickering above the two of them as his body became less human and more pony, then back again morphing like fluid.

"Better in every way! No need to deal with the problems any of us have had in our lives! Mine fucking especially! No need to fucking worry about protecting your fucking sister!” Each sentence was punctuated by a black hoof, each time cracking the glass cage.. “No need to fucking claw to the top!” Crack. “No fucking need to deal with foster care!” Crack, lines snacked up and down the cages. “No god damn need to worry about anything, because everything is just so fucking perfect!” Down went the hoof  and with another crack the glass cage broke apart, sending shards flying everywhere that pinged harmlessly off the both of them, but some smashed into the lights, throwing the room into complete darkness.

The only sound in the room was his heavy breathing for a few minutes, Celestia not knowing whether or not to leave as this was either an opportunity to see what was going on, or a safe way to get out. She chose to stay as his breathing slowed. “You’ll have to excuse that, completely unprofessional.” 

She heard him adjust his labcoat in the darkness, fabric rubbing against fabric. “But my point stands, I fucking hate your kind, just like I hate most people. Well not hate, more of I really wish you didn’t exist but you’re there anyways. When somebody messes with my mind though? Oh that fills me with so much hate. That’s why I’m glad you’re here.”

She took a step back, as he said that, she couldn’t be harmed but that didn’t mean an unnerving statement wouldn’t have any effect on her.. “And why are you glad I’m here?”

“Simply?” A massive weight slammed into her chest, throwing her off the floor and into the wall, her head whipping against the metal once before she was pinned against said wall by said weight. She felt all of it, just as real and painful as reality would be, amplified by the breath against her face. The lights finally came back on, giving light to her predicament and she wished it hadn’t.

For it revealed the abomination that was Mercer now as he held a scalpel to her face, grinning wildly with a face that wasn’t entirely his. For in the dimly light room, pinning her against the wall was a shadow of the former genius, a mis-match of body parts that looked agonizingly painful as invisible worms traveled up and down his body changing it every second. Her sister’s face was there one moment, staring at her with murderous glee, and gone the next replaced by a random pony’s then Mercer’s and back again.

It was a jigsaw puzzle gone wrong of her sister’s body and Mercer’s, changing each second and complete with red lines. In a matter of seconds the hand holding the scalpel turned into a hoof, the scalpel falling harmlessly to the floor. He simply replaced it with his hand as he reared back, the worms that seemed to be inside him changing his arm, her sister’s arm, into a pseudo blade. Her sister’s voice said, “You’re going to be my screaming and bleeding stress ball is all.” The arm lunged forward to stab her in between her eyes.

Panicking she cast a cancellation spell to escape from him, something far worse than a human. On her throne in Equestria, the home place of harmony, as arguably the most powerful being on the planet and surrounded by her loyal army of guards she felt genuinely afraid.
> Waken
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Yeah it is.” She idly commented, leaning her head back against the wall. They’d been waiting for almost an hour now, longer than it should’ve been according to the conversion doctor or whatever was the term for them. “You have any family?”

He didn’t even look up from his magazine. “They quit talking to me after becoming what I am.”

She grimaced under her mask, maybe that was why he was willing to help. “Sorry to hear that.”

“S’all good love, I am what I am, nothing’s changing that.” He put down the magazine and rolled off the bench he’d been laying down on. Stretching like a cat he said, “What do you say we stretch, sitting down too long isn’t good for the muscles. If you still have any that is.”

Oddly enough despite sitting in more or less the same position for an hour she didn’t feel the least bit uncomfortable and declined. Though that did make her wonder as to what she was, she’d done things that, even if she was superhuman, would have at least made her feel a bit tired. 

Jeremy rolled his eyes and kept stretching, not really caring if she saw some more explicit bits. She averted her eyes respectfully by picking up one of the magazines and skimming through it, something about magic. There was a lot of pony magazines in the pile in front of them and hardly any human magazines. Go figure.

Her skimming and his stretching was interrupted by an ear-piercing shriek from deeper inside the bureau, making her snap to attention. “The fucking hell was that?”  Her question was answered by another shriek, but with less fear and more pain.

Jeremy looked at her once, then down the hallway it came from. “I have a distinct feeling it might have something to do with your brother.” She mirrored that sentiment with a nod and sprinted past him, everything becoming a blur thanks to her new speed. There was the occasional colored streak signifying a pony or a distorted voice thanks to her running.

But her speed didn’t help her as she skidded to a stop in the middle of a hallway intersection, wondering where to go, all three of her optional paths decorated with doors to keep her from just glancing down one way. That dilemma was solved instantly when one of the doors was busted open by one the ponies working there, eyes wide in terror and mouth gasping for breath as said  green pony ran past.

Well that’s the way she was going then, she thought to herself going in the opposite direction of the fleeing pony. Down the hallway she ran, the lights above flashing as if they were turning on and off, ears listening for her brother or whatever was making all the ruckus. It didn’t take her long to hear the raging voice, screaming at the top of its lungs, voice somehow alternating between female and male.

And the male voice sounded a lot like Alex. Swearing under her breath she ran towards the screaming, slamming through the doors as they got in her way, getting closer to the screaming, hearing a new sound accompanying it. The sound of something meaty getting pummeled by a hammer.

Slowing down slightly, but still keeping at an inhuman run she briefly wondered why they’d need such a huge facility before she slammed another door open and came upon a more horrific sight than the screaming voice of her brother and unknown woman. On the floor was a massive pool of blood, sickly red, reflecting the world around said pool and her as she slowly approached it, eyes not on the pool but the body wedged into the wall. The pony’s legs splayed straight out from the hole in the wall, blood dripping down through the cracks running all the way to the floor, straight into the pool of blood.

She gagged at the sight and looked away, not wanting to know what did that. It was as she skirted the pool of blood, she noticed the screaming and pummeled meat had stopped. She was very conscious of the fact she didn’t exactly know where she was and what did this atrocity. In the room opposite of the body, one that she was about to pass, a faucet turned on along with a humming voice.

Licking her lips she backed up away from the door slowly and against her more rational thinking she called out in a cross between a whisper and a whistle, “Alex?” The faucet snapped off and the so did the humming. The air grew tense and thick with her fear about who or what was behind the door, so she slowly backed up, eyes on the door ready to run at a moment’s notice. The handle turned ever so slightly and she tensed, leaning backwards and away from it.

It opened ever so slowly, inch by inch eventually revealing, “Alex?”

Clad in the same exact outfit as when she last saw him awake he smiled at her, seemingly not noticing the blood or dead body in the wall and strode towards her, seeing right through her disguise. “Hey ‘sis I heard you can jump over buil--” He cut off as she tackled him in a hug, making him half-stumble backwards before he lifted her up via his own hug and moved them farther down the hall, before letting go of her and twisting her around to face the way she came from. “Somebody’s happy to see me, something happen to me?”

Instead of walking with him she re-hugged him again, crying into his shoulder while he simply smiled at her. In between sobs she talked about how Gentek blew up and that Blackwatch had tried to kill her, how Jeremy the pony helped her and how they brought him to a Conversion Bureau. With her face in his shoulder she didn’t notice his scowl or how one of his fists tightened, but instead felt him patting her reassuringly on the back. “While I can’t agree with the way you tried to wake me up, but I do appreciate your concern. Come on let’s get out of here and we can talk, because there’s some things you need to know.”

He felt her nod her head against his shoulder and he walked forward keeping her close as her sobs grew quieter and quieter. In only a few moments they had walked past the hallway of blood and he’d placed his arm around her pulling her in as they walked. “You may look all grown up, but you’re still my little scared sister.”

She sniffed, “Shut the fuck up okay, I was worried about the fact you were on my back getting shot.”

Alex chuckled and said nothing, feeling the time wasn’t appropriate to ask more questions or explain things to her. But the comfortable silence was broken by the sound of hooves hitting the floor, from straight ahead behind a set of doors. Dana looked up confused slightly, until Jeremy ran through with a worried look on his face. He skidded to a stop in front of them and gave Mercer a quick smile before looking at Dana. “Sorry to be the bearer of bad news but if you want to continue your family bonding you need to do it elsewhere, there’s military men outside. So you’d better run and I should go hide.”

He saluted them and dashed on past them, leaving Mercer confused. “I take it that was Jeremy?” A nod from Dana as she finally pushed off of his shoulder and rubbed her eyes, to rid the evidence of tears. Mercer took a moment to think things over, explosion at Gentek, superhuman sister, Blackwatch shooting her. They probably thought her a runner and so to an extension he would be considered one too, so it was best to not talk to them yet until he had all the facts. “Alright come on let’s not go through the front entrance.” 

He gestured his sister to follow and started running down the halls, noticing the fact that everything around him seemed to be going by faster than normal. Everything was blurrier than it should’ve been, like he was inside a slow-moving car, instead of running, his sister didn’t comment on it. She merely kept up with him as they ran down the halls together, not turning any corners and just keeping straight so as to reach the walls on the outside of the building.

It took them not even ten seconds to reach the end of the Bureau, where they both stopped and looked at it. Alex took a moment to look at his hands, his sister and finally at the distance they both covered. He walked up to the wall and ran his hands over it, pushing slightly on it.

“So genius what do we do now?” Dana asked sarcastically as he kept feeling up the wall. She didn’t know what to expect from him but when he decided to literally kick through the wall, easily busting through it she commented, “Holy fucking hell Alex what’d you do?”

“I’ll explain when we get somewhere less likely to be shot at.” Alex replied as he used his arms to finish making a hole in the wall. He walked on through his hole and into the next building, a lifeless office building.

Dana climbed in after him and was proud to tell him about her home. “I do have a safe house set up in New York City, the only problem is that we have to get there without being seen.”

Alex simply laughed and resumed his walking through the office building. “I don’t think we’ll have a problem with that.”
> New Family
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

He walked. Not alone, with family. Nice and warm it was, but the air was cold and black. Family heard me and gathered around me, warmth emanating from them, chasing away cold. Family was good to me, like they should be. He felt bad, they didn’t seem fine, but they were. He could feel their past in his head and they weren’t the same. He didn’t like it, but their warmth and love for him made him forget that.

He scratched one behind the ears like the memories said to, avoiding the lump of massive flesh growing behind its right ear. He liked this one and the other beside it. Sisters before his family and showing him family. It was a shame they looked different though, sure they were warmer and friendlier with him but he liked how they were soft before. Looking over the rest of his family he thought the same, but they were all family now so it was worth it.

But out of all his new family the two sisters who found him and brought him to the new family were his favorites, and as such they were always by his side, even more so when he thought about the cold. Loyal family they were, he thought to himself as the two sisters nuzzled against him and warmed his skin with their fur.

The only reason they weren’t in his home was because he felt their memories telling of potential family. Another town, with family, it’d be good. He’d help them as best he could to be family, it was a scary world all alone in thoughts. But with family it was easy to figure out, have others to comfort you. Not to mention his gift of speed and strength would help them. Walking on he looked at the world through the family’s eyes and vice versa, a wonderful world of green and light blue crossed with red and heat.

The ground cricked and cracked underneath him, feeling wet and stinging but yet also dry and comforting. Clash of senses all through his mind and he loved it, his family mirroring his sentiment back to him. But they were hungry and by relation so was he, stomachs and throats growling more so than ever before in any of their memories. He was fine with eating the plants themselves for sustenance, but the family wasn’t.

They had to eat meat which he didn’t like, restricted to only one type of food. That would starve them someday.

But not today, sifting through the memories of the family he found another town full of their previous kind, before being family, nice and meaty. As nice as they might be compared to the humans with their knives and cells, his new family came first. So he gave a mental shove to the family and sent them into a blood-rage, promise of warm, succulent and juicy flesh just over the horizon, the family breaking out into a full-on sprint.

His thousand member family charged through the trees, regardless of past inflictions or how bent their legs were, how huge and misshapen their tumors or limbs were, they were blurs in the moonlit night. He walked behind them, not wanting to see what would happen. But he would. After all they were family and family always knew what happened to family.

Nonetheless he walked behind them and let the family run on ahead. He saw nothing but green for a few minutes through their eyes, but after a short time he saw their previous kind in a town, a couple of whom were busy sitting on a bench and whispering to one another. He had no idea what they were doing but it didn’t matter as the two ponies noticed his family running at him and they began to scream. Then they tried to run from family.

Then they turned red, liquidy and chunky as the family fed. He could taste them on his tongue. Stringy. Tough. Juicy. He could even taste the fear. It was delicious but he didn’t like it. But the family did and that’s all that mattered, so he just kept walking on as they ate. The screams and snarls made some of the windows light up as more ponies checked to see what the noise was.

And the family noticed them as they checked outside and were subsequently targeted by his family, more and more of his eyes being filled with blood and meat. The cycle went on and on, the more his family hunted, the more the ponies screamed, the more looked and the more they hunted.

He eventually reached a hill that overlooked the town, a single tree growing up on top of it. He neared the bottom of it and looked up, seeing apples hanging from several of the branches. A little hop up and he grabbed an apple then sat down and watched through his family’s eyes as they ate, the town below screaming in pain and fear, both through his own ears and the family’s ears.

The only thoughts that ran through their minds was the fact they were no longer hungry, not worrying about their previous morals, lives or families. For they were his family now.

And he was taking care of them now.
> Mouths have Canines
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

She wasn’t quite sure if the world was sideways or it was her head lying sideways on the bed again. Or was it a bed? She wasn’t quite sure anymore, with the hallucinations running rampant through her vision, sometimes seeing pavement, red webs stringing up and down buildings, a hauntingly pale face. Yet that face was just as re-assuring to her as Princess Celestia when she came in to check on her, the difference between the two being…. what was it… oh right, Celestia always came in telling her she’d get better. While the pale face would whisper re-assuring words of being better soon and the pains being over.

She hoped both of them were right, along with the other faces that came and went, all colors of the rainbow even one that was a rainbow. She knew she should know them, but she couldn’t recognize them right away. But she could tell something was off with them, they weren’t right, they were off somehow. They didn’t glow right, they were supposed to glow red. Nopony glowed red.

They were supposed to weren’t they?

But they weren’t glowing and she didn’t remember them glowing. Groaning she flipped over on the bed under her, flickering between red, grey and purple. Her head hanged off the edge of the bed, right above a bucket that glistened red with blood. That should be inside her.

Not rolling around inside a bucket. She giggled and reached down into it, hoof trailing the edges, dampening and darkening, before bringing it up to her eyes and staring intently at it. It didn’t take all that much effort to realize something was off about the way she was thinking. Wiping the blood off on the bed she looked up and out towards the window, finally noticing the IV hooked into her arm.

She briefly considered taking it out but ignored that thought, knowing it was supposed to make her better. So instead she scratched at her foreleg, accidentally ripping off some of her fur and revealing her skin. Her lip curled at that and leaned back just to let herself wallow in self-pity, body aching and things crawling behind her eyes.

Her tongue flicked out and stuck against her chapped lips, her tongue somehow being dripping wet while her lips were drier than a desert. Pursing her lips she tried to summon some saliva to slather over her lips but realized that her mouth was just as dry as her lips, which made her question how and why it was so wet in comparison. 

Staring out the window another hallucination hit her, the world changing in front of her. Bed was replaced by dirty ground, walls by trees, ceiling by a night sky and the front of her room which had a door in it, replaced by that same pale face, peering down at her. She could feel a phantom hand brush against her muzzle and she leaned into it, enjoying the blazing hot hand as it comforted her. Whispers in her mind that she was nearly ready. Just a few more days of lying in bed in pain with thoughts and sensations that weren’t hers.

It was all okay though because those thoughts and sensations as creepy they were, they were even more comforting than the bad. That didn’t sound right. Twilight giggled again and nuzzled into the ghost hands cupping either side of her face. 

She spent several minutes like that before the hallucination was whisked away by the sound of somepony banging on the door. A growl sounded in her throat, unbeknownst to her, and she watched as the door opened, revealing the blue shimmering translucent barrier that kept her isolated from the rest of the world. Put there to keep other ponies from catching what she had, it coated whoever walked through it in a miniature version of the blue barrier so as to keep them from catching it as they gave her food, helped her move around and otherwise checked up on her.

She idly waved at the blue colored chef walking in, smiling at the silly white towering hat on his head. Then she smiled at the two silver trays that was being levitated in velvet magic, eagerly awaiting the food she’d asked. “Sorry for the wait Princess but we had a bit of trouble starting the oven and we had to locate some of the local fauna for this project you have in mind. I would like to say that it might be in your best interests to wait until you’re better for working on a project.”

Twilight simply nodded at the blue and red chef and waved him/her out as the trays were levitated to a table that seemed to have appeared out of nowhere next to her. Rolling over she ran her tongue over her teeth, feeling sharp canines and incisors cutting into her tongue. She didn’t always have those did she?

Well it wasn’t possible to grow teeth overnight so she must have had them in her mouth. Looking at the plates she blindly groped with her hoofs and managed to grab the handle on one. Ripping it off she caught sight of some concoction that the castle staff had said would help her get better, somehow using the oven with green and yellow oozing out of some sandwich. Snarling at the nasty concoction she reached over for the next platter, one that she had asked for as per advice of the pale face.

It took a minute of flailing her hooves until she managed to knock off the top of the tray, revealing the red, stringy raw meat underneath. Grabbing it she flung herself back onto the bed and dangled the meat over her head, eyes wandering over it. 

Then she snapped her jaws close over the end of it, savoring the juices running down her throat and accidentally letting most of it run down her chin and dribble onto the bed. It tasted heavenly and felt just oh so right. 

She must have had canines, otherwise how could she taste something as good as this.
> Exposition for Dana
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Dana and Alex had initially started to travel to her safehouse, or more accurately a friend’s storage room, so they could he could explain all the shit that was going on, but they had split up after he said he needed to grab a few things first. Apparently according to what he said, he wasn’t completely sure what had happened and would need to ‘borrow’ some equipment from various hospitals along with notes that he had illegally taken back to his house. After he grabbed all that, then he’d meet up with her at the safehouse and perform a few tests to see what happened and then explain that.

Meanwhile he had asked her to do one thing for him and that was to use her questionably good hacking skills and finesse with a computer to help brief him on what had happened. So for the past hour she’d been typing, clicking and reading away on her little fortress of computers in front of her, consisting of three monitors side by side, several towers below the desk so she could handle all the information she could ever need and a small pile of cokes beside her, all of which were barely illuminated by the soft glow of her computer’s screens. She had initially thought of hacking into the Blackwatch systems to see what was going on, but rethought that as she had earlier looked at some of their setups through street cameras and newsfeeds.

To do that she’d need better equipment and some of theirs to help mask her signal from them, not to mention the fact she could feel the walls vibrate every few minutes from a helicopter fly-by. That was the other reason, so many Blackwatch troops moving throughout New York that, with her luck, would instantly notice her and come knocking on her door and Alex would be caught unawares. So instead she had used not as illegal ways of checking up on news and what Blackwatch was doing. 

But even that was a hard thing to accomplish for each time that Blackwatch seemed to get captured online be it article, blog or video it was almost as soon taken down. Not to mention some online rumours of ‘zombies’ going around. The facts were hard to separate from fiction when it came to this Blackwatch, some claimed they were aliens, others as bioterrorists, a racial superiority group, criminals charged with death but offered another chance and the list just went on and on.

Said list was being compiled from a bunch of online pages she had been downloading from all over the web, somehow sprouting up by the hundreds in little more than five minutes and surprisingly quicker at being taken down. Thankfully she didn’t seem to be the only one who was hunting down these pages for some of the same ones kept re-occuring on different sites, with more info tacked on each time. All in all despite whoever was taking them down, Blackwatch themselves probably, the general public was just as determined in keeping it on the web.

The bad thing about the list she was compiling kept having common themes throughout them. Unknown diseases occurring in people throughout the US, very realistic photos of ‘zombies’ and people executing them, Blackwatch troopers firing at humanoid shapes in the darkness, albeit the shapes were very misshapen. Those were the common themes it seemed to Blackwatch and the internet, but if what little her brother did mention about the virus altering a person’s DNA was true, which it probably was considering he engineered it, then it wouldn’t be too far fetched it seemed. Not to mention several unfocused pictures of a red-haired woman in what seemed to be a bondage suit. Why every picture of her and these ‘zombies’ were unfocused and hard to make out she couldn’t figure out why.

The last thing that made it all out to be like a bad movie about the government and another apocalypse was the fact that UN live, more or less a way for the world to get the biggest power’s opinions on current world events, seemed to be a lot more censored than it was. Shifting their focus from the Blackwatch troops moving all across the country, enacting martial law to an extent for the entire eastern seaboard and tanks patrolling the roads in broad daylight.

On the bright side of all this she was like a mini version of Superman now, with super speed, super strength and being capable of jumping off twenty stories and landing without a scratch below. Oh can’t forget the missile proof skin she had now, that was good too. Sighing she leaned away from the screen for a moment and rubbed her eyes, more out of habit than actual need despite staring at computer screens for almost an hour straight in the more or less dark. It was kind of weird but eh, fuck it, weirder shit was happening nowadays.

Drumming her fingers on the table she thought of where to look next online for more info when a hand rapped upon the door to the shed. Fast as lightning she sat up from her chair and looked at the metal sheeted door covering the entrance, wondering whether that was Alex or Blackwatch. Although if it was Blackwatch they probably wouldn’t both knocking, and as such she went ahead to the cover and groped for the bottom handle of the door to yank it open, after fumbling for a few seconds she succeeded in grabbing the handle and yanking it open.

To blind herself in the evening sun as the other storage units up and down the small courtyard did nothing to block it, sending her flailing backwards with a yelp. Alex frowned at her while she blinked like an owl and cussed more than a sailor, several crates of scientific equipment he needed to use sitting beside him. “Sometimes I wonder if you ever grew up while I was away Dana.”

“Fuck you cunt, maybe I’d have matured if you fucking stayed with me.” She hissed back at him, still sitting on the cold concrete floor, wondering why her eyes weren’t sore as hell, whilst Alex started moving the boxes inside the storage unit before pulling the door down to the near bottom, leaving a little room so light could get in. By the time she got over the fact of blinding suns and getting over it nearly instantaneously, she calmed down he’d already finished moving all of his things into the now cramped storage unit and was peering at the walls.

“Where’s the outlets?” She blindly pointed in the general direction of her computers and he grunted his thanks and dragged one of the crates over, ducking under the table to start plugging in his own things. “So you own a storage unit just in case of an emergency like this or something?”

Sitting up she glared at his back, his lab coat still adoring his shoulders and trailing down his back onto the floor. “Because I’m fucking rich to have a hidey hole, it’s a friends storage unit that they didn’t need anymore but had still paid for a couple months in advance. So what’s all that crap of yours supposed to do?” She asked walking up behind him and looking over his shoulder.

He didn’t turn but rolled his eyes nonetheless. Reaching for a microscope he placed it upon the ground next to him along with a stack of papers. “They’re to help me narrow down what strains of the virus we’re infected with. But before I start explaining that you mind giving me a recap on what’s going on?”

Chuckling lightly she backed away slightly to give Alex some room as he started unpacking more things, more of which she started to not recognize with each passing moment. “Okay first up Blackwatch, or, to be politically correct, the President has enacted martial law all along the Eastern seaboard. Equestria has come under recent fire about the attack on Gentek despite heavy evidence it wasn’t magical in nature and as such many ponies are targeted by various racial groups. UN Live has suffered under censorship under the pretext that it’s for America’s security. There has been online articles and videos pointing to ‘zombies’ and various conspiracy theories about Blackwatch. And finally the last tid-bit of important information is that a red-haired woman in fetish clothing has been appearing up and down the seaboard with no reason behind her showing up.”

Alex paused, his back to her. “Hey what’s wrong Alex?”

He sighed and moved from his earlier crouching position to a sitting one and looked at her. “Quite basically we’re fucked, that’s what.”

Dana frowned, that was an unsettling answer from her brother, the man who had everything planned out in his head before he even knew he had a plan. “Why’s that?”

He slowly stood up and started to pace back and forth in the storage unit. “Let me give you a rundown of what that virus Gentek has been flaunting really does. As you may or may not know a virus is a ‘thing’ that rewrites DNA inside a cell and replicates so that it can thrive. Redlight or Blacklight as mine is called, takes it to another level, completely re-writing an entire organism’s DNA turning them into a creature capable of things that it shouldn’t be able to do.

“Those zombies you saw on the internet are the results of the virus, what happens to a human when they’re mutated. Tumours that act as armor, erratic bone growth to serve as claws to rip you apart, extreme muscle mutation to allow for speeds past a speeding car and lifting hundreds of pounds. Noses like that of canines to pick you out from their fellow kind and to top it all off they seem to have some type of hivemind which defies all logic.” His voice steadily rising in volume, hands waving in the air.

“That woman in fetish clothing is Elizabeth Greene, codename Mother, the center of this hivemind. She’s been dormant for as long as I’ve worked at Gentek but her body produces so many strains of the virus all of which could wipe out humanity instantly,” He capitalized on that with a snap of his fingers. “Or ones that could potentially cure any disease or in my case allow me to re-write our DNA so that the Conversion Serum doesn’t affect us beyond making us immune to magic. With the added benefit of strength and speed.

“If she’s somehow running amuck across the entire seaboard then all types of strains are entering the environment. Harmless ones that boost your immune system, ones that turn you into a paranoid foaming maniac or her most common and unique one being that of turning people into zombies.” He turned towards her and looked her in the eyes. “That is why we are fucked.”

It took Dana a moment to realize the implications of what Alex had just said, anger and disbelief flashing across her face, the tightening of her jaw and fists, eyebrows creasing and breathe quickening. “You’re fucking telling me that the personification of disease itself is fucking wandering around unchecked?”

He nodded, cupping his chin in thought as the light from under the door slowly darkened as an unseen cloud moved in front of the setting sun. “And that’s why I brought all this equipment here, we’re obviously not zombies or trying to spread the disease around like her and as such this strain we’re infected with might not just be an answer to the pony problem but might allow us to stop her ourselves.”

“You fucking want us to stop her? What if we get infected or something!?!” Dana shouted throwing her arms to the side as if highlighting the woman in question.

“You can be infected with multiple strains but the one we have will, I can nearly guarantee you, continue to be in dominance and as such, not mentioning our speed and strength, we would be perfect candidates to stop her. Besides I read some reports they gave us before she went comatose and they all suggested she knew how to handle the military, two individuals with the same powers as hers though she wouldn’t know how to handle. I may not like Blackwatch or the world in general, but I’ll be damned if somebody else sends it all to hell.”

Dana sputtered, not knowing how to respond to any of the shit happening. “B-but…” Before she could actually think of anything Alex grabbed her shoulder and brought her close, smiling down at her. 

“Hey now come on, you trust me right the genius behind most of the virus strains? Believe me when I say that you and I can handle this.” She smiled back up at him and hugged him, burying her face in his shoulder.

“You know I missed you Alex.” She said still smiling into his shoulder. He said nothing as he just held her there, his eyes staring intently at the book that lay on the ground with his notes on the virus.
> Pro-Active
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Alex tinkered with the dial on the side of the microscope as he stared at the specimen squirming around on the glass slide underneath the scope, lit only by the dim light underneath it. A small black mass that constantly writhed around to try and locate its next meal, little tendrils snaking outwards from it. The way the virus was acting seemed so generic. He sighed and stood up and away from it, turning around to half sit on the table he’d set up on, the table being a typical grey folding one that had been tucked away in the corner that rested in shadows.

He wasn’t making any headway with the equipment he currently had, besides, it wasn’t the most pressing matter. Yes he could cure the world with the strain he had, if he wanted too but he really didn’t  care all that much, not to mention that the world was in even worse peril than the conversion barrier while Greene was running rampant along with the virus likely escaping confinement. The few projections he’d liked about the virus escaping put the longest time before the entire planet was infected at four weeks and the shortest was two, and those were the projections before magic came into play and advanced it’s already stupefyingly fast life cycle.

Hopefully some unknown factors would slow the virus’ spread by a large amount, but guessing by the fact that somehow in three days all of Northern America remained uninfected there was already something at play. No idea what it was though, something was holding Greene back, the fact that he didn’t know what it was wasn’t comforting either. He looked up at his sister who was busy typing away at a keyboard and sat hunched over to get a better look at one of her many computer screens. She and him were both infected with the same superhuman strain that let them pretend to be superman to an extent.

Just like a Runner, which would explain why Blackwatch tried killing his sister. The only examples of anyone ‘surviving’ infection from the virus were the Runners, people that still maintained some semblance of their intelligence but existed only to spread the virus with all the benefits of strength and speed without the downside of visible mutations. But unlike a Runner he was still in control of all his mental faculties and as of that moment those mental faculties were focused on how to stop Elizabeth Greene wherever she was.

Blackwatch had all sorts of resources that he could use, except they wouldn’t trust him a damn anymore much less his sister, because as far as they knew he would just be trying to manipulate them to try and spread the virus even more. Alas even with their resources the world was a big place to try and locate Greene and kill her, even if they were limited to only the continental Americas that was still a whole three days head start she had. Plus the barrier that would keep all human operatives from going into a decent part of said Americas.

Him and Dana though, the advantages of being a Runner, with none of the mental alterations, still in their own minds and being two people with reasons to stop it would help set the balance back, because right now the balance was all the fucking way in hell the way it was now. The only thing he really needed before he got started on tracking Greene down and eliminating outbreaks of the virus would be some help from Blackwatch. Whether he had to convince them or beat the everloving shit out of them didn’t matter. Glancing back at the door that had one of the crates he used to transport his items here as the doorstop he could see the sun going down, casting the ground he could see in a golden glow. Best to get on it now.

Dana would be a welcome addition to his team for locating Greene. Alex shook his head and walked up behind Dana and grabbed her by the shoulder and spun her around, a surprised and slightly upset look on her face. Resting his hand on her shoulder and looking her in the eyes he said, “Dana I think it’s time we did something more proactive.”

“What the hell you mean by that?” She asked, glancing back at the computer he just ripped her away from then back at him. “I thought you wanted me to see what Blackwatch was doing?”

He nodded and turned to the garage door. “Yes I did but there’s an easier way to do that then searching all over the internet for things that may not be there. Not to mention my research loses it’s importance when there’s a more immediate calamity, namely the virus. So come on I know a better way for us to fix all this.” He waved her on as he pushed open the garage style door and looked up at the sky, practically hugging the edge of the frame as if to hide from any blackwatch fly-bys.

“Please tell me it doesn’t involve us talking to those Blackwatch fuckers?” She asked as she stood up and walked up to his side and crossed her arms. “Rather not have to figure out how many fucking bullets I can take to the ass before I die.”

Alex turned back to her and with a slight grin shook his head. “No I just need to scare some information out of a few old colleagues, figure out how they’re trying to contain the virus. See how the ponies are doing, because if there’s anything that’s going to be dangerous it’ll be infected ponies. And I figured that it’d be good for you to get out once in awhile.”

“Says the fucker that hardly ever left his lab.” Punching his shoulder playfully she looked out at the sky with him, the setting sun being reflected by several of the skyscrapers. “I assume you have a plan though?”

He nodded and walked out of the storage unit, just to stop outside of it and started pacing. “It shouldn’t be too hard to locate some of them, after all I did work with them for several years and I know their various scenarios for these type of situations. Getting the information we need would just be a matter of threatening to beat the shit out of them or something similar. All we need to do to get close is to just put on some sort of disguise which would be simple enough. I mean I have just the outfit back at my house that would be perfect and have multiple layers to ditch so I can blend in better.”

“Um Alex?” Dana interrupted, a finger raised questioningly as she watched him.

“Hang on. I’d have three different layers, one with a hood, a leather jacket on top and a buttoned one for looking casual underneath it all--”

“Alex.”

“I said hold on. Maybe a pair of slacks, for better movement? No no I’d need jeans to blend in better for when we get in close and get back out, boots would be good with tha--”

“Alex!” Dana yelled at him, stopping him in his pacing.

Looking up and sneering at her he growled, “What the fuck do you want Dana?”

“Yo-your clothes changed.” She whispered with eyes as wide as saucers and the corner of her lip twitching. Alex merely raised an eyebrow and looked down at his clothing to see what she was talking about, then did a double take as he realized his lab-coat had somehow changed into the outfit he had been talking about that would have been perfect for blending in with the crowds. Black boots, blue jeans, a white buttoned up shirt, grey hoodie overtop that and a black leather jacket on top of it all. Looking back over his shoulder he looked to see if he somehow had the pair of red wings on the back of his jacket too, going wide-eyed himself as he realized that, somehow he had the exact outfit down to every detail that he had been talking about. “How the fuck did you do that?”

“I don’t know…” Alex trailed off as he ran his hands over his new clothes, feeling the material and trying to rationalize the fact he was just wearing a labcoat a minute ago. Grabbing the cuff of the jacket he squeezed it between his fingers and compared the material to actual leather. It felt warmer than it should have been and thicker too, almost like it was… flesh… “I think the virus not only infected us, but our clothes too. It’s already prone to changing its victims radically and keeping them alive so I guess clothes could change too...? It shouldn’t work like that but.”

Dana held up her hands to stop him talking as she took a slight step back, that rationalization making no sense to her. “I can get us being infected and becoming mutants, sort of anyways, but our clothes? Like hell that’s alive!”

“No but it was once organic, which means that the virus could absorb it as biomass.” Spinning slowly around he looked at his clothes. “I admit it’s not something I expect but it’s plausible. Hmm.” Looking towards her he once more cupped his chin in thought and approached her, her backing up slightly more. “All I did was imagine my clothes… Dana why don’t you try imagining yourself something else?”

She laughed at him and shook her head unbelievably, smile twitching. “You’re joking right? I can’t just imagine myself wearing something else and that happens!” She yelled at him, hands tightened into fists.

“We live in a world with flying and teleporting horses.” He pointed out in a counter-argument. “Just try it Dana I need to see how it looks.”

“Fucking fine.” She grumbled and crossed her arms,closing her eyes as she thought of a new outfit, brows creased in concentration. Alex silently watched as she stood there, wondering exactly what would happen to her. Needless to say when her clothes turned black and separated into individual strands, that swarmed across her skin and slid against one another effortlessly, he was surprised. Elated even. “I feel ridiculous doing this.”

“Just keep going Dana.” She ever so slightly shook her head and shuffled from foot to foot as the tendrils slowed down and assumed vague outline on top of her skin, a loose open circle signifying the end of a sleeve on her arms, a flap of tendrils hanging from her back as if a hood. The skirt she once wore extended downwards into actual pants and turned colors from a sickening black to a familiar blue of jeans like his. Her upper garment solidified but kept its black coloring as a hoodie, ending at her wrists which in turn were covered by a pair of gloves and to tie it all together her bright grey sneakers were replaced with a more dull grey.

Dana opened her eyes and gave him a deadpan stare, not bothering to look down at herself. “Okay are we done now?” He smiled and gestured down to her new outfit, Dana following his gesture looked down and gasped in surprise, mouth hanging open as she couldn’t think of words to state her disbelief.

“Well I guess we have an easy way of blending in with crowds now, just change our clothes with a thought, albeit that does have unpleasant implications on how much the virus has re-written our genetic code.” Alex shook his head and gestured her to come. “We can puzzle more about this later, we have to deal with a country-wide epidemic.”

She stared at her now gloved hands for a moment before shaking her head, hair spasming while shaking, and looked back up. “Uh yeah… sure.” Jogging out after him, arms swinging with each step she cast a breif look up as the blaring sounds of a siren drew near. “Been a lot more police out lately.”

The two picked up their speed and hopped over the top of the storage sheds, a little jump for them being fifteen feet into the air, landing back down onto the concrete and scaring a dog that had been rummaging in the trash cans. “It’s to be expected, we did have a building full of viruses blow up.” Alex commented as they run up to the side of the building. With nary a moment of hesitation he jumped up, at the building and slammed his foot into the brick walls, changing all of his momentum from forward to upwards and ran up the side of hte building, Dana doing the same.

“So where are we going Alex?” She asked as they came onto the roof a moment later, dust exploding outwards from where she landed, her brother waiting silently for her before resuming his run. 

“We need to get somewhere a bit higher up, I don’t know exactly where they’d be or what scenarios they’re using to set up their containment areas so I need a place to get some view. So to be exact, we’re heading for one of the skyscrapers.”  He said, the wind throwing his words back at her as they both resumed their car-rivaling sprints, wanting to get this over as soon as possible. She nodded even though he couldn’t see her and remained silent as they both jumped and ran across roofs, staying up high so as to avoid being seen by anybody walking the streets. 

Truth be told now that she wasn’t running for her life and getting shot at she enjoyed the speed she could get to now. The roaring of the air as she cleaved through the it without an effort, the wind tearing away at her face and hair, the satisfaction of nailing every landing from heights that should kill her or at least stagger her but yet pressing on as if it was nothing. Running across the roofs and flying through the air as if she was above it all and wasn’t part of the world’s problems. It made her feel free.

With those thoughts going through her head, the trip felt shorter than it actually was, soon the small drab and poorly maintained buildings near the edge of the city turned into painted, maintained and populated ones. Slamming down into another roof, she rolled back up into a run but skidded to a stop as she noticed Alex holding up his hand in a halting manner. Now that the wind wasn’t roaring in her ears anymore she noticed the sound of a helicopter nearby, and with a glance upwards she saw the helicopter coming from down the street, flying only a dozen feet over the rooftops.

Alex snarled slightly and looked over to the edge of the roof, where it dropped off in an alley-way and waved her on as he hopped down and landed in the dark. Dana followed down after him, disappearing into the dark alley after him, dust spreading outwards as she slammed into the ground. They both looked up to see the helicopter pass by, not bothering to slow down as it passed over top them, meaning they hadn’t been seen yet. “That’s strange.”

Dana looked to her brother as he said that. “What’s strange?”

“The only reason that there’d be a helicopter around here is if either infection rates were staggeringly high or if there were important personnel around here. Which means that either we’re about to run into zombies or…” He trailed off to let Dana finish, taking the moment to flip up his hood.

“There’s Gentek personnel nearby?” She guessed with a shrug. “I don’t know how this works still.”

He rolled his eyes. “Just come on and flip that hood over your head, won’t do us any good for you to get recognized.” With that he trudged out of the alleyway, hood pulled down tight over his head and hands in his pocket, Dana hurrying behind him to catch up. The two walked out of the alley and turned onto the sidewalk, Alex leading the way as his hood moved back and forth as if to see where to go. She followed closely behind and huddled as close to him as she could, intending to not lose him.

The street was like any other street that was surrounded by apartments right before the sun set, if said street was devoid of any life, the only animation being a crumbled newspaper tumbling down the street. They walked down the street and she felt like she was being watched, it made her skin crawl. Whipping her head towards the buildings beside them she watched one of the curtains dance as if something had just moved. “I’m getting the feeling we’re not supposed to be out right now.”

“All the more reason to hurry up then, sooner we grab a scientist the sooner we can fix this whole mess.” He muttered as they walked on down the silent street, eyes silently watching them as they walked. Only going at a walking pace it took them a minute to reach the end of the street, hearing dozens more sirens blaring in the distance, alongside several helicopters flying by.

Alex stopped at the end of the street and looked both ways trying to discern where the helicopters were patrolling most, that spot most likely being where the infection or Gentek personnel were. After listening to the helicopters and watching several more pass by he inclined his head to the right and they traveled down the street once more, again in silence. 

At least until somebody screaming from just a street over made them both snap their heads up. Alex immediately broke out into a full-on sprint, seemingly teleporting several dozen feet ahead leaving Dana in the dust as she was less immediate on her reaction. But she sprinted after him, Alex stopping at the edge of the building on the end of the street and peering around it. She slid to a stop next to him and asked, “What’s going on?”

He stepped out of the way and motioned for her to look. Brushing past him she grasped the edge of the red brick building and poked her head around it, so close to the building she practically melded with it. And she was glad she was hiding herself like this because down the street were several dozen Blackwatch soldiers, carrying unconscious ponies out of the apartments like sacks of rice. They’d walk over to the man clad in a yellow hazmat suit, who would point at one of three army trucks and they’d toss them in. The three army trucks clogged up the majority of the street, the space that would be taken up by cars, being empty as it was a Newfoal neighborhood. “See the yellow guy Dana? He’s a Gentek worker, probably out here to check on how the virus might be doing.”

She nodded before looking at the line of ponies. “What’s up with the ponies though?”

“Probably going to be used for experiments or something like that, but that’s not importan--” He stopped as Dana whirled around with a snarl and he held his hands up in front of him in case he needed to push her away. Because she looked ready to pounce him, her teeth being bared and looking sharper than normal, glistening in the setting sun. “What’d I do?”

“You were about to say that your company with a zombie viruses testing it on people isn’t important?” She asked, voice surprisingly level given her furious expression, eyes seething with anger, lips curling ever so slightly into a snarl and a finger pointed accusingly at his face.

Right she still gave a damn about people or ponies in this case. Would have to get her to work around that, he mused quietly to himself. Clasping his hands together he worked his lips side to side. “Well… if we don’t get some intel from Mr. Gentek over there and use it to find Greene and stop her the world is screwed regardless of how many we save in the meantime. So our priority is to get him and then move on.”

Her expression worsened into a visual version of a growl. “That’s no fucking reason to leave them to be experimented on!”

He gently pushed her finger down out of his face and looked at her with an emotionless face, that set her hairs on end, like that of a man who'd killed hundreds before without batting an eye. “There’s about fifty unconscious ponies, fifty Blackwatch soldiers and several helicopters in the vicinity. We so much as rush in there they’ll all get killed in the crossfire along with a high likelihood of getting the scientist killed in which case the carnage we’re about to unleash will all have been for nothing.” He paused to point towards the soldiers around the corner of the building. “Be my guest and start a war on a street filled with apartments.”

She flinched back slightly and looked down at her feet. With just the slightest quiver in her voice she apologized, “Sorry it’s just I don’t wan--”

“Want anybody to get hurt I know, you mean well but you have to look at the big picture Sis.” He finished for her and dragged her to him, enclosing her in a hug. It was a good thing he nipped that in the bud, couldn’t have the Gentekkie get in danger just yet, would be fine as soon as he got the information out of him, but not before.

Letting go of her he patted her on the shoulder with another smile and went back to the corner to watch them. Formulating a strategy he got halfway through with an idea when Dana spoke again, “I’m enemy number one to Blackwatch right? Not to mention I’m regarded as a terrorist now?”

“Yeah what about it?” He muttered, train of thought interrupted.

With a hint of eagerness in her voice she said, “Well if I were to run out there wouldn’t they try to chase me or kill me, giving the ponies time to wake up and let you go in afterwards to grab the Gentek guy after most of them try to go after me? Most of Blackwatch will chase us leaving the pon--” 

He interrupted with a snap. “No.”

“What why not?” She said with disbelief and clenched teeth, from her brother shooting down the idea of helping innocents just because it could harm the scientist. “I can easily handle this.”

He sighed and pinched his nose, the idea of having to explain what should be obvious starting to annoy him. It didn't matter what stood between them on the way to their goal, so long as the price didn't exceed the end's yield. “Because that’s stupid and overly dangerous for simply grabbing one person. Neither of us have any combat experience and I’m going to guess that you aren’t up for just killing them are you?” He asked and looked back at her to see her shake her head. “Exactly, so we’re just going to go and grab him when they’re done with collecting ponies. Probably jump onto his car and drag him out of the window.”

“And leave the ponies alone to be experimented on? No damn it.” She snarled and capitalized on the no with a wave of her hand. “We have the power to take care of this don’t we? It’s irresponsible to not use it to help.”

“It’s even more irresponsible to pretend to be a fucking comic book character, we aren’t Superman, Spiderman or Batman. We’re up against a military organization that has been preparing for this exact situation for dozens of years. You’ll just get yourself killed.” He said with a roll of his eyes.

“Better to get shot then let innocents get harmed.” She said adamantly, crossing her arms in defiance. “Besides you said these Runner things wanted to spread the virus, we can prove that wrong by helping everybody we can.”

“Or they can say that it’s because we’re just spreading it and need more people alive.” Alex argued, but looking at her scowling face he sighed. “But fine, seeing as how I’m not going to convince you any time soon to ignore the ponies, and by the time I do they’ll be long gone, we’ll go with your plan. You go first and I’ll come in after you to grab Gentekkie, by the time they’re done chasing us whatever they did to the ponies will probably have weared off.”

She smiled, “There you go bro, just let me think for a second.” Alex shook his head and stepped away from the edge of the building and leaned up against it, waiting for her. She tapped her chin in thought and ran her tongue over her lips. Suddenly she snapped her fingers and ran around the edge of the building with no warning. Alex peered around the corner and watched her as she executed her plan of action. He didn’t expect anything elaborate from her, she had always been brash and to the point as a child and from what she had acted like since he re-united with her.

So when she grabbed the bumper of a car parked on the side of the road, lifted it off its rear wheels with a single hand and then slung it onto her back and resumed her sprint towards the Blackwatch soldiers, he wasn’t surprised in the least. Nor was he when she threw said car at the soldiers with an unholy scream and flipped off her hood. “So I’m the number one terrorist and you’re spec-ops, so shouldn’t you bunch of fucking dipshits be able to catch lil’ ole’ me?” 

That pissed off all of them if the gunshots were anything to go by and Dana reacted by jogging down the street with a, “Na-na-nah can’t catch me!” Most of them chased after her, jumping into cars and Humvees that were previously hidden behind the three army trucks, their tires screeching as they chased after Dana, leaving not even a fourth behind with the Gentekkie. Staying silent, hidden and waiting behind the wall Alex waited for several moments, letting the sirens of the cruisers siren’s move away before making his move.

Rushing out from behind the building with a one hand pulling down on his hood to make sure it was secure so they wouldn’t know who he until he wanted them too. One arm stretched outwards he sprinted down the street, the soldiers responsible for protecting the world’s last hopes against conversion or the ultimate plague not noticing a thing. The ground beneath him shook, the wind roared in his ears, and his fingers twitched, itching to grab the scientist and beat the information out of him. Sprinting past several of the guards so fast that some of them stumbled, they only had a moment to yell a warning before he grabbed the back of the scientist’s neck, wrapping his hand into the yellow material of the scientist’s suit.

And he was off down the street, the first bullet finally sounding off as he rounded the corner, Gentekkie flailing and screaming in the air behind him, his arm bending at an angle that should be agonizing but felt as natural as breathing. The screaming of the Gentekkie was largely muffled by the mask, so the odds of the Blackwatch soldiers actually hearing Alex duck into the side alley as soon as he disappeared from view, was minimal to none. Leaving him more or less alone in a dark alley, with most of the military might in the city chasing his sister, meaning that him and the Gentekkie could get more acquainted. Pausing in the alley and swinging his new ‘friend’ around to be in front of him, hands futilely trying to peel off his iron grip, incessant empty threats and promises of good fortune if he were to let him go.

It wouldn’t be too hard to interrogate him. Hopefully his sister wouldn’t get herself killed while he was busy. He’d much rather she didn’t get herself hurt, she was his sister after all, not to mention it’d be easier to take care of Greene with his sister around...