Disclaimer: I do not own Prototype, nor to I own Twilight. If I owned Twilight, I would probably have to shoot myself for sheer bad writing alone. If I owned Prototype, I would completely get rid of the premise of Prototype 2 and make it about Alex and Pariah duking it out in an epic battle of the ages. (Seriously game developers, what the hell? Why did you make Alex do a complete 180 and turn evil out of nowhere? Doesn't fit his personality at all!)
Chapter 1: Sparkling Hunters
"Alex..."
"Yes?"
"What did you do?"
"What?"
"What did you do?"
"..."
"..."
"...what makes you thi –"
"You have that same look on your face that you had when you threatened the pizza boy back in Manhattan. And no," Dana held up a finger at her brother's sign of protest, "don't even try to justify it by saying that you thought he was a Blackwatch sleeper agent. We've been over this before and we both know you're just trying to divert my attention. Now what did you do?"
"Uh..."
She folded her arms and stared at him. "Alex..."
"...you can't be mad at me."
"Alex. What. Did. You. Do."
"Well... I was minding my own business –"
"Oh, bullshit."
Alex raised his hands in defense. "I was. I was picking up some stuff for you to eat when I got jumped. I didn't do anything this time."
Dana raised an eyebrow. "You got jumped."
"Yes."
"You."
"Yes."
"Really."
"Yes, really. Why is that so hard to believe?"
Dana sighed. There were times where she wondered if her brother's tendency to get hit by missiles and machine guns had dislodged a few of his brain cells in the process. His stupid superpowers had made him so aware of his surroundings that it was impossible to get anything past him anymore. She couldn't even jump out to scare him like she used to do when they were kids, since he always knew where she was. So how was it that the same guy who was able to give a detailed report on what you ate two weeks ago just by smelling your breath, could be so fucking dense about things concerning himself?
If Alex had been the glasses wearing, turtle-necked nerd that he had been back when he still had his memories, she could totally picture someone mugging him. He just had this entitled look to him back then. Even after all the shit they went through as kids, he looked and acted as though he were a privileged young asshole who was still being spoon-fed by his rich-as-fuck parents. He had this look of casual arrogance, as though he were better than everyone. It had pissed her off more than once to see her brother, the one she looked up to as a kid, treat her like she was no better than the dirt that caked off his fancy-as-fuck shoes.
People on the streets would have mugged him on principle, just to see him squirm. Hell, she might have mugged him.
Pre-amnesia Alex was a whole different thing. Dana loved her brother more than life itself, and even she was a bit scared of him when she first saw his new... look. He looked less like the awkward nerd that she was used to and more like someone who would stab you in the stomach and make you watch as he licked the blood off the knife. Creepy as fuck.
When Alex showed up at her apartment all those years ago when the shit first hit the fan, she honestly could not recognize him at first. He just looked so... different. Maybe it was the jacket, maybe it was his hood, or maybe it was the way he carried himself. He used to be so jittery the last time she saw him and yet when he climbed through her window he just seemed so fucking... still. Even now she didn't know how to describe it, only that it gave her the fucking creeps. Everything about him was so different from the way she was used to that she couldn't help but react the way she did.
(She still feels guilty about hitting him over the head with a frying pan. It didn't do anything to him and Alex didn't seem all that bothered by it, but the fact that she tried to give her own brother brain damage still made her feel responsible.)
The fact of it was, her brother Alex was a scary motherfucker. One you did not want to meet in a back alley.
Someone trying to mug him meant one of two things. Either someone really was suicidal enough to try and mug her brother, or –
"You're lying."
"I'm not lying."
Dana stepped in close and looked her brother in the eyes. "Really?"
"Really." Alex could never meet her eyes when he was lying or holding something back from her. The fact that he met her gaze square on told her that he was telling the truth.
"And there's nothing else you want to tell me."
Alex's eyes shifted to the side. "No."
"Okay, see, now I know you're lying."
"Dana..."
"Alex..."
"...it's nothing to worry about," Alex insisted. "I'll take care of it."
Dana sighed. "Alex, come on. You know I'm just gonna bug you about this, so you might as well tell me now."
"You're not going to believe me."
"Alex, we've both been through some seriously fucked up shit in the last few years. You got experimented on, started jumping around like Mario on crack –"
Alex frowned.
" – I got kidnapped by mutated zombies –"
"Hunters."
" – you got hit with a fucking nuke which I still can't believe you survived –"
"I only got hit by the edge of the blast. I was a mile away."
" – and you fought off some mutated crazy lady and her demon spawn while taking out most of New York in the process. The point is," she said when he looked like he was going to interrupt, "that nothing you say at this point will be beyond my suspension of disbelief. The world is a fucked up place full of fucked up mysteries and shit. I know that now, so you don't have to mince words with me, okay? So what happened?"
Alex had never been jumped in an alley before.
Oh sure, he had memories of being jumped. More than a few of the people he consumed had been victims of Manhattan's night life. Some had even been instigators, robbing dozens of people in order to pay for food or drug habits or to take care of their families. So he knew the ins and outs of being jumped, knew what it was like on each end of the process.
But it was always different experiencing it for himself. Much like the first time he consumed a person, he had the memories and feelings associated with being loved and cared for, but it wasn't actually until he met Dana that he really knew what it felt like.
Before he had memories that echoed from the hundreds of people he killed. Now he could honestly say, without a shadow of doubt, that he got jumped. Not much of an accomplishment to be honest, but it was something.
Had he been back in Manhattan, Alex would have consumed the jumper without a thought. Back then, people disappeared all the time with the Hunters roaming around. And even in a place like this, no one would have cared if one solitary mugger went missing someday. No one would know, no one would care, and Alex would be able to walk away a little less hungry.
But he made a promise. He promised Dana that when the whole Blacklight situation was over, he would, "stop being a violent sociopath and act like a normal fucking person". Which indicated that she wanted him to stop killing people. And that was kind of an issue, since she still didn't know that he used to consume people in order to survive. It had been something that he had kept from her the moment he saw her all those years ago in her apartment. It was the one thing that he could lie to her about without her finding out right away. And while his hunger hadn't been much of an issue since he consumed Pariah, he still wanted to keep it that way.
He knew that if she found out about what he really did to the people he killed, it would only be a matter of time before she would connect the dots and realize he wasn't really her brother. That he was just wearing his skin, just like when he wore the skin of the thousands of others he killed. And she would turn away from him because he knew she loved her brother, her real brother, even though the bastard hadn't deserved it, had turned away from her, used her, tried to kill her when he released Blacklight in that subway station –
Dana might not have been his sister, but he loved her as though she were. The idea of her fearing him, turning away from him, her hating him, was something more painful than anything Bloodtox could do.
So instead of walking into a nearby alley and quietly consuming the unfortunate person who chose to follow him, he instead decided to do what Dana would have wanted him to do: turn and walk away in another direction. And that was when the guy ran and tackled him.
For a brief moment, Alex was actually startled. The guy was fast, as well as strong. Had Alex been a normal human, he might have actually been thrown to the ground with enough force to break his rib-cage. As is, it barely made him move. The creature had one of its arms wrapped around his waist while another was holding his neck. The grip was strong. Strong enough to remind him of the Hunters that he regularly consumed by the group load back in Manhattan.
Which was impossible since they were all slaughtered and bombed to oblivion back in New York. And unlike him, Hunters couldn't come back from a nuclear bomb.
Did some of the Hunters manage to escape? he thought. Then he shook his head.
No, that would be ridiculous. Even if a Hunter managed to survive his rampage, the Blackwatch soldiers, and Pariah's mass consumption of most of the city, they still wouldn't be able to survive the nuclear bomb. And even if – by some bastardized miracle – one managed to survive, how the hell would it make it all the way to Washington?
It was at this point, while Alex was contemplating this little mystery, that the creature on his back bit his neck.
Alex reacted instinctively.
In seconds, a piece of biomass shot out from his neck in the form of a spike, right where the creature bit him. The spike pierced through its mouth and traveled up, through its brain. A second later several tentacles burst through Alex's back and, with a few crunches, pierced through the creature's body. His biomass shifted, covering the creature completely and drawing it into his body as it slowly ripped it apart piece by piece.
It was after his body settled and his tentacles stopped writhing underneath his false skin that the creature's memories washed over him.
"What the fuck?"
For a brief moment, Alex considered the idea that he was hallucinating. It would make more sense than the fact that he just consumed a vampire.
As the living embodiment of the Blacklight virus, it was physically impossible to fool his senses. Mostly because he constantly modified and enhanced his senses himself. And while it was possible to suppress or modify one's memories, the fact is that you couldn't replace them completely. The three hundred years worth of memories that he managed to absorb were much too detailed and too... realistic for them to have been implanted or made up.
The genetic code that he absorbed from the... vampire, also proved that it wasn't human. Or, at least, it wasn't anymore. It had human-like traits, sure. But then again, so did Hunters, Elizabeth Greene, and Pariah. They were all human at one point, before experimentation with viruses turned them into something else.
Judging from the genes, the vampire had a pretty iron clad defense. Its skin was strong, strong enough to take on large amounts of damage without stopping. If the average human was infected with the "venom", then it would automatically enhance what little strength and defense they had to superhuman levels. Alex was tempted to add the vampire's code to his defenses and enhance his abilities further if said defenses didn't come with a tenancy to sparkle and a low resistance to fire.
Alex had been hit with one too many rockets in his five years of life to actually give himself a weakness that any soldier or marine could capitalize on. And the thought of permanently sparkling was too embarrassing to contemplate. God only knew what Dana would say.
Alex shifted through the vampire's memories. It's name was Laurent. He was a nomadic vampire, one that traveled to different places in search of food instead of settling down. He was a apart of another coven, one lead by another, much older vampire named James. It's only other member was a female vampire named Victoria, who was James' wife. They stuck together as a group for fifty years before they came to Washington and met another coven who called themselves the Cullens.
James ended up getting into a fight with them over a human and was killed. Laurent betrayed the coven, crossing over to the Cullens' side in order to survive. He went to live with another coven called the Denali's and got into a relationship with a vampire who was thousands of years old, called Irina. This turned out to be a ruse, since Laurent still had feelings for his old coven. He agreed to be a scout for Victoria so that she could get revenge on the Cullens for killing James by creating a large group of newborn vampires.
He had gone searching through the streets for food and potential vampire prospects when he came across Alex.
Alex frowned. From what Laurent's memories were telling him, this Victoria was building an army of newborns right here in Seattle. Newborns were, according to Laurent's experience, stronger and faster than most vampire's simply because they were young. One would think that as you became older and harnessed your strength and abilities, you would become stronger than those who were younger than you. Vampires were apparently backwards in that regard.
Nonetheless, these vampires were dangerous. They randomly and indiscriminately killed whoever they got their hands on with little or no consideration to being captured. If Laurent was any indication, vampires were arrogant and believed that they could only be harmed by other vampires. Newborns, however, were more animalistic and Hunter-like in that they killed everything and anything that got in their way in order to fuel their lust for blood. This Victoria woman planned on creating an entire army of them, which would put the city of Seattle in considerable risk.
Which would also put Dana in considerable risk.
He would have to do something. Dana would be in danger with these vampires running around. Leaving would be out of the question; Dana came here to specifically investigate the series of disappearances and murders that have been rising over the past few months. He knew how stubborn she could be when it came to following a lead to a story and knew she wouldn't leave, even if he told her what was going on. It was an aspect of her personality that he was both annoyed and fond of. It had gotten them both in and out of trouble over the years.
Now that he knew about the existence of vampires, all of those disappearances made sense. It meant that the army was being built as he spoke. Which also meant that there could be a bunch of hungry, uncontrollable newborns roaming around the city, killing whoever they got their hands on.
Which meant that Dana could be in danger right now.
The thought alone got him running.
When he arrived back at their apartment, Dana took one good look at him and figured out something was up. Alex might have been able to lie and hide his emotions well enough to make a seasoned actor jealous, but when it came to Dana he might as well be an open book. He always had a hard time lying to her; a fact that almost gotten him found out more than once.
"So what happened?"
He needed to tell her something. He couldn't tell her that he got attacked by a vampire, simply because there was no evidence of it actually being a vampire. It was fast and strong, sure, but so were most Hunters and super-soldiers back in Manhattan. It tried to bite him on the neck, but it wasn't exactly something only vampires did. Most Hunters led in with a stab to the chest or a claw to the stomach, but it wasn't uncommon to go for the neck in fights.
Had Laurent's memories not specifically stated that they were vampires, he would have thought they were just another Blackwatch experiment gone wrong. Nothing about them fit common vampire mythology. They didn't die from stakes to the heart, holy water, or garlic. They sparkled in the sunlight instead of going up in flames. Their eye color actually changed depending on what type of blood they drank, which didn't make any logical sense. The younger ones were stronger than the older ones instead of the other way around.
Then there was the fact that many developed superpowers. Laurent had come across many vampires who were born with certain gifts. Some could read minds, tell the future, create illusions, control fire; the list went on. Many of these abilities seemed to be based on their lives as humans, some were based on personality, and others just popped up due to random chance.
The only real aspect that connected back to vampire myth was their need to drink blood as well as their extra ordinary strength and speed. Honestly, the so called "vampires" sounded more like overpowered X-Men than the vampires of myth and legend.
He only had Laurent's memories as proof that vampires were real, and there was no way Alex was going to tell his sister that he consumed him to get the information.
"I got attacked by something that... wasn't human."
Dana uncrossed her arms and looked up at him with concern. "Not human? You mean another fucking Hunter? Or one of the infected? Aren't they all dead?"
"Yeah, they are. This one was different though."
"What do you mean?"
"Well, it was strong and fast, but it still looked human, it didn't have claws... and it sparkled."
Dana looked taken aback. "It was wearing sparkles?"
"No, I mean its skin actually sparkled. In the sunlight."
"...what the fuck?"
"That was my reaction."
"Jesus Christ." Dana pinched her nose. "This is just what we need. Sparkling Hunters."
"I don't think it was a Hunter," Alex offered. "It was strong and fast like one, but it wasn't as beast-like. It seemed rational for the most part." He shrugged. "It was smart enough to jump me in an alley at least."
"How the fuck is that smart?"
"Well, assuming it didn't know who I was, it realized that attacking me in the middle of the street where everyone could see it would have been unwise."
"Or it could have been random chance," she pointed out. "How do you know it wasn't one of the infected?"
"I can tell."
Dana swiveled around and gave him a funny look. "What do you mean you can tell?"
"Well, I can tell. The infected usually have a different scent."
"Scent? You can smell them out? Like a dog?" Dana smirked.
Alex sighed. "I – yes."
Dana burst out laughing. "That's the funniest thing I've heard. My brother, the bloodhound. Fucking Christ."
Alex sighed. "Are you done?"
"Yeah, I'm good. So what are we gonna do?"
He frowned. "We?"
She gave him a flat stare. "You are not leaving me out of this Alex."
He looked down, unable to look her in the eyes. "We know nothing about these things Dana. It would be safer for you if I –"
"If you what? Risk your life while I stand on the sidelines, unable to do a damn thing while by brother gets killed?"
"Dana –"
"Alex, you have to stop treating me like a piece of fucking glass." She walked up to him. "I may not have superpowers like everyone else seems to have, but I can take care of myself okay?"
Dana hugged him. "You're my brother. I'm not gonna stand on the sidelines and watch you get yourself killed." Her voice became muffled as she buried her head into his chest. "Not again."
Alex gingerly returned the hug, making sure to carefully place his arms around her so he wouldn't accidentally crush her. Dana never admitted it, but he knew that she was more shook up by what Pariah did to him than he was.
Being consumed by Pariah during their fight was uncomfortable, he admitted, but it was hardly traumatizing. He managed to rip himself out before he was fully absorbed. Apart from all of the biomass Pariah took, it wasn't a total loss. He managed to more than make up for it later when they fought again and Alex consumed him in turn, making sure to completely rip him apart in the process so that way he wouldn't repeat what Alex had done to him. The sheer amount of biomass that he gained had pretty much nullified his hunger, even to this day.
Dana did not come out of the situation as well as he had. He was looking straight at her when he was being consumed and the look on her face...
He wasn't human; the only heart he had was one he made in order to fool the virus detectors hidden in most Blackwatch bases. And yet... when he had looked at the sheer anguish and pain she had on that day, they way she reached out towards him trying to pull him back, her screams as his vision was covered and he was fully consumed... he swore his heart had broken.
He knew what it was like to have the one you loved get put in danger. He had to deal with it every day back in Manhattan. Nothing was safe, nothing was sacred. One day you would be okay and the next thing you knew, Hunters and the infected were knocking down your door, or Blackwatch soldiers would arrive and hold a gun to your head. He couldn't let Dana out of his sight without someone trying to hurt her, not since she got kidnapped at a moment of weakness and not since she almost became one of the many casualties of Pariah's rampage. It was part of the reason why he was so over protective towards her, even years after everything had settled down.
"Promise me that you'll come to me when you need help."
"Dana..."
She looked up at him and he immediately felt like shit when he saw that she was crying. "Promise me."
He could understand why she wanted to help him. He knew how she felt. But that didn't mean he was going to let her put herself in danger. Not when he could avoid it, and not when it was unnecessary. Her being mad at him was a small price to pay if it meant keeping her safe.
He brought her back into the hug and lied. "I promise."
It was then and there that he made a promise, one he would keep.
He would make sure she would be safe. Even if that meant killing every last vampire in the world, Dana would be safe.
He wouldn't be able to live with himself otherwise.
And so starts Alex's vampire hunting journey. How is it so far? Please give me feedback in the comments. All responses are welcome, even flames. Have to improve my writing somehow.
Fair warning: updating will be sporadic what with my new daycare job and college coming up. Just wanted to let you know.
