//------------------------------//
// Prologue: A Small Explanation  
// Story: The Blacklight that Shines Inside 
// by Fate is Manic 
//------------------------------//

	And how the hell have I found myself in this situation? I look up staring into the eyes of the most powerful creature in this world, and smile. 

"Now don't worry about time, that I have plenty of." Celestia smiled as she spoke, her joke taking its time to register in my tired mind. 

"Alright, you want to know what happened? Then sit down and grab some popcorn, this is going to be fun."

I suppose I'll just start at the beginning like most of these stories. I was thirteen years old when it happened. I had not been adopted yet and was still living wherever I didn't get chased from. That day in particular I was hanging out in Penn Station, playing a guitar I had 'borrowed' from the orphanage before I left. Sadly this was no normal day for me or anyone in Manhattan. (Yes Princess, there is a city in my world called Manhattan, why? Manehattan? What the fu..... Never mind, Back to the story!)


Now everything was going fine and casual most of the day, I made a little bit of cash and was packing up to go grab a bite to eat. Then this guy comes running into the station like a maniac. He looked kinda panicked, but what did I care? He seemed to be another guy from the street, probably high as a kite and drunk off his ass to boot. He was wearing sneakers, black I think, blue jeans, a shirt I couldn't make out, an undershirt, and a jacket. The jacket was black with some red design on the back that I couldn't see well from where I was standing. The guy was wearing the hood on his jacket up so that I could not see his face. Now the guy was running like he was an athlete, but he still managed to be followed. That's when the soldiers arrived. The BlackWatch, what a fitting name, anyway they stormed down the stairs yelling at the man. I stand there, leaning against a support beam ,or whatever holding my guitar case slowly putting on my hat in case I would have to make a mad dash for the exit, they soldiers seem to only be focused on this dude though, pointing guns at the guy and telling him to 'give it up' and release the vial'. They seemed pretty angry at the guy, but all he did was smiled, then he dropped the vial. At first everyone froze. No one new what was in the vial and it seemed not to do anything..... Until the soldiers freaked. They went ballistic, yelling something into their mics about 'the virus has been released'.

Of course as soon as the word 'Virus' left the soldier's mouth. err face mask, all hell broke loose. People started freaking out and running around. Now this is where the real weird shit happened. The soldiers just blasted the guy in the chest. They turned him into ground beef right there in front of everyone. Now when the Mililtary just start firing on some guy in the middle of Penn station, that's kinda the hint to get the hell out of there. Of course I tried, but taking three steps I fell on my face, I had started coughing and it literacy forced me to the ground. Now, mind you, I have been sick before, but not so sick that I could not move from my position on the ground or so sick that I hallucinated the gunk from the vial slipping into the wounds on the dead guy's body.....or the crap sliding over to me and then into my own gaping mouth. 

I got onto my feet and I ran, that shit was in my throat, I could feel it sloshing around and clinging to the sides of my mouth. That is when I made the worst mistake of the entire experience. I took a breath. The sludge moved into my lungs and filled them like water filling balloons. It was gone from my throat, but I could feel the weight of the sludge in my lungs, pulling and stretching. It was the worst pain I have ever felt.

After stumbling  into some back ally I fell unconscious, sure that these would be my last glimpses of life. Well, rather anti-dramatically might I add, I awoke a few hours later in the same ally. That is when I put the entire experience behind me as a really weird dream. That day I used what money I had and got the hell out of Manhattan. I got as far as Philadelphia, in a state called Pennsylvania. (Yes, Princess, Philadelphia? Yeah that's a city in my world.....wait don't tell me......Fillydelphia. What the hell.) That aside, I was trying to find a way out of Pennsylvania when I was picked up by the PCCYFS, or The Pennsylvania Council of Children, Youth & Family Services. Yep, that is how I ended up on a bus on the way to a state I had never heard of called Missouri. A foster family had found me and wanted to adopt. Yeah, I was not really that exited about having to be shipped off to some people I had never met before's house, I was acually kinda looking forward to being cared for by somebody. I never got that as a child. I grew up in a New York orphanage with like fifty other little brats just like me. When I turned ten I just ran and never looked back. Now, I was getting parents, and a brother apparently.

The next few months went by without much excitement, I grew close to my new family fast, I started school like a normal kid, I had a big brother to goof off with, and I had found a girl that I cared a lot about. Now, we fast forward a little bit. When I was like....fourteen? Maybe, fourteen and a half...well that's not important. I had long ago told my brother Sean what had happened. Strange thing? He believed and accepted me. That was the thing about Sean, he never questioned what you said if he thought you were being sincere, he just helped how he could and gave all he could to help. Well, anyway, that month the guy I had seen die at Penn Station had been destroyed in what the army called 'a nuclear terrorist attack'. Yeah, I detect bullshit in that, but whatever, the point is, I had watched that man die. Next thing I know, I'm watching him on the news running around at insane speeds, killing people and these 'infected' with strange powers. I wanted nothing to do with any of it, but Sean thought that maybe I had gotten those powers too. That is when the research started.

We poured all our time into finding out what happened that night, from research on the man known as Alex Mercer to the virus that spawned him. We didn't find much on the virus itself, but Alex was everywhere, hundreds maybe thousands of websites devoted to the guy and his abilities. So we looked into it. Through research on him I developed my powers into what they are today. Then one day at school the Military unit known as Blackwatch arrived at hospitals, schools, and places of work, offering a serum that could keep the virus from affecting people. Like a vaccine. My brother and I found out that it was really stuff called Bloodtox that would kill the virus if it was present in your system, but would not affect humans. Apparently they had discovered that someone had escaped Manhattan the day the virus was released. Now they were hunting that person to extinction.  With not much choice I took the Bloodtox serum and then left. The effects didn't really come until the next morning. 

I awoke to find most of my arm a melted pile on the ground. My blood boiled and burned like acid. My brother thought that if we replaced my blood we could stop the Bloodtox. Now we had seen research on Alex 'consuming' people, but I didn't think I could do that. It wasn't my morality or my emotions stopping me, no the virus seemed to stop those parts of the human body. No, I just did not believe I possessed that kind of power. Until I did it. I found some poor sap walking home. I limped my sorry butt over to him and just jumped at him. I didn't know what to do so I just was going to tackle him and see what happened. That is when I got results. 

It seemed that I could turn into a sort of sludge and enter people through their mouths like the virus did me. I then invaded their lungs and became the oxygen that their blood carried into their brains. After that I just absorbed the poor guy's body from the inside. Sadly when I turned into goop I lost all of my cloths, and when I absorbed the man I could not absorb the synthetic fibers of his clothes. So I retrieved my clothes and walked home. Like nothing happened. It was weird, I didn't feel bad for killing the guy, like he was just my everyday meal. Speaking of which. I have not eaten in three years. THREE YEARS! Yep, from what I gather the virus shut off my stomach, my lungs, and my heart. As long as my brain was pumping with energy from the blood I absorbed I was fine. 

Well, that was pretty much how that went. 

"Why did that sound like an emotionless recount of you life in like 5 seconds?"

"Because it was ok. I hate getting emotional."

"Well then let me take over." 

Kyra stepped from behind Zane. She looked into the Princess' eyes with something that looked like a plea.

"Yes, you tell the story."

Alright well. Zane had been going on fine for a few months when something bad happened. The Blackwatch had been following him ever since the Bloodtox incident. On his way home with his brother, Zane decided to get out of the car and test his running speed verses his brother's 'piece of crap' as he put it. Sean agreed and raced him. When they came to a stoplight Sean stopped but Zane did not. He passed his brother up and continued running. He turned around when he realized his brother was no longer following him. That's when he heard the crash. He ran to Sean's car to find the side smashed in and a drunk guy complaining from his truck. Zane checked on Sean, but it was too late. Sean was dead and the drunk guy was yelling and yelling about stupid kids and insurance. Zane told me that Sean had the right to go and the drunk guy was supposed to stop. When the drunk climbed back into his car Zane chased him.

He jumped in front of the truck and yelled at the man. The guy hit his breaks before he could hit Zane and just kept on yelling. Zane is a good guy, but he was angry. He punched the hood of the truck, tilting it onto the front and catching it by the windshield...then...then he ripped the guy out of the truck through the windshield and threw him on the ground letting the truck drop. The cabin kept the truck from killing the man, so Zane jumped on the back end. The tailgate smashed into the guy's neck and ripped his head off........

Princess Celestia looked from the human girl in front of her to the boy that she was thinking was more of a monster than a man. "You killed this man?"

"Hell yeah! That prick deserved everything that I did to him. He owed every drop of his blood that was spilled to Sean. Sean died that night because of that piece of shit!" Tears were visible in the boy's eyes. He looked to the floor. "Sean did not deserve to die....."

Kyra looked at Zane with sadness that threatened to force her to tears. "Kyra, please continue."

"Ye.....yes p-Princess."

The Blackwatch followed Zane everywhere after that. A few months after the incident they stormed our school, they Chased Zane from the building but he managed to escape. I found him exactly where I thought I would. At Sean's grave.

"Then, we are being surrounded by military. Suddenly purple mist surrounds us and then *poof* we're here. I know it all sounds cliche and it really sounds like an ill prepared story, but you have to believe us!" We explained why Zane is like he is, how we got here, and why there are humans with guns terrorizing your people. Please believe us...."

Celestia looked at the two. She gave Kyra a look of sympathy and then addressed them both. "Actually you didn't explain how these 'Blackwatch' came here. You were brought here because of Twilight and I's spell, but we did not mean to summon you, and we most certainly did not summon them. So where did they come from?"

A dark figure stepped from the shadows holding a gun up to the princess. He was followed by a full platoon of men, all armed to the teeth. "I believe I can answer that question, 'Princess'."