Chapter 1: Introducing Death
I woke up to the sound of my alarm clock going off. I hated alarms. They were possibly one of the most annoying things I had ever encountered on this earth. If I would never see one again it would be too soon.
I groaned as I slammed my hand down on the top of the clock, shutting it off. I slowly rose up from my bed and stretched. It was a peaceful night's sleep. It had been a very long time since I had been able to rest like that. It was pleasant, to say the least.
There was something extremely wrong though. Something that would have signaled the apocalypse. Something that I'm sure surprised everyone in the yellow zone.
There was no gunfire. I didn't hear a single magazine load into a gun or anything of that nature. I walked to the window to make sure that I hadn't missed the end of the world, or anything of that sort.
I was met with the peaceful sight of civilians walking to and from their destinations. You may be wondering,"What's so weird about that?" The weird thing is that they weren't being shot at.
Yes, shot at. Blackwatch had taken to using the civilians in the yellow zone as living target practice. They had stooped extremely low after their secure protocol was taken off of civilians. You want it in English? Blackwatch doesn't care about the civilian population anymore. Gentek and Blackwatch both thought that securing the virus was more important than civilian safety. The result is present day Manhattan.
I suppose I should introduce myself now. My name is Kyle Drake. I am 18 years old and I live in the yellow zone of New York Zero in a small apartment.
So, now you're probably wondering what Blackwatch is. Blackwatch is supposedly one of the most elite military forces in the world. They're not known by many people except those in NYZ. Mainly due to the fact that they're working for the American government, so naturally they try to be as secretive as humanly possible. They were created to protect America from biological attacks. In 1963, their new virus known as Blacklight, infected the town of Hope, Idaho. Needless to say, the town was destroyed. They found only one survivor. A woman by the name of Elizabeth Green, or Mother, as Blackwatch had started to call her. She was an incubator of the virus. In other words, she would spread it. Possibly by even touching something she could infect it.
In 1970, Blackwatch, alongside Gentek, the creators of Blacklight, were told to contain the virus. They were supposed to do it peacefully, but that never came.
Their operations continued until 2008 when a Gentek scientist by the name of Alex J. Mercer, supposedly in a fit of delusional paranoia, stole a vile of the Blacklight virus, and released it. Blackwatch shot him up after that, and his corpse landed where the vial broke.
He woke up a few days later on an operating table in the morgue. Gentek thought the virus killed him, but they were dead wrong. It gave him superhuman abilities, of which the most notable of was his ability to consume someone. This allowed him to become that person, as well as take their memories.
Alex, technically, was dead. He died when he was shot by Blackwatch. The virus copied him down to his cell structure, though. Want a simpler version? Alex Mercer wasn't Alex Mercer anymore. He was literally a walking freaking virus. That's how he could consume someone. His cells would copy theirs to make an exact image.
Alex fought his way to Gentek and freed Elizabeth Green. With her loose, the virus spread like a damn wildfire. There was not a damn thing Blackwatch or Gentek could do. They tried Bloodtox and they tried a supersoldier program. They were helpless against it.
Finally they decided to resort to nuclear solutions. Yeah, they tried to nuke Manhattan. Thankfully, Alex had intervened, stolen the nuke, and dropped it out in the ocean so that Manhattan was out of the blast radius. He somehow survived that even.
We're at present day now where Alex is dead. He was killed by James Heller, a man whose genetics allowed him to become just like Alex. He was able to get multiple powers instead of being like Alex's evolved and only getting one power. I will go more into depth about them later.
Where was I? Oh, right. The peaceful silence that had blessed the Yellow Zone. I quickly made up my mind on what I was going to do today. I would go running. It had been a long time since I had practiced my acrobatics and such. I needed to keep myself in shape. I started to get ready.
I went to the mirror next to my bed and was met with the sight of a 6'5", blue-eyed, scar-riddled, brute. Yes, I'm not the prettiest thing to look at. I've got way too many muscles, I'm covered in scars, and my size basically deters all who dare oppose me.
Yet again, you're more than likely wondering what happened to me. It's simple really. I'm a Prototype like Alex Mercer and James Heller. Shocker isn't it? I'm sure you could have seen it coming, though. The scars are from the stuff that Gentek had me go through when they tested on me. They injected me full of this, cut me up with that, the usual mad scientist stuff that you would imagine.
Their experiments had increased my muscle growth like crazy. I had been transformed into a tower of viral muscle. I could've done with a different method of gaining my abilities, but I don't regret killing and consuming every living person at that facility. The one downside to my powers was my regeneration. I, unfortunately, didn't have the quick regeneration skills that Heller and Mercer had. My wounds took time to heal. For example, a bullet wound would take a few minutes, a lost limb would take about a week, etc…
I first put on a pair of boot-cut jeans followed by a pair of long black socks. I then put on a pair of tan, worn out timber wolf boots since I only wore boots. I had found them to be much more comfortable and convenient than tennis shoes. I stuck a large Winchester brand hunting knife in the knife slot on the side of my right boot, and pulled the leg over, effectively concealing the knife. It was still cold outside so I figured that I would dress heavy.
I absolutely hated the cold. I couldn't stand it. It gave me an odd feeling as if the cold wasn't natural. I would always put on multiple tops so that I could stay warm. I threw on a white T-shirt with a thick, grey hoodie that had fur liner on the inside. I still didn't think I would be warm so I threw on my favorite jacket that my father had given me before he had died.
It was a black leather jacket that he had given to me about a month before he died. It had two symmetrical dragons. They both had a different element blowing down each arm with the element forming a cuff from the middle of the forearm down. The right arm was red-orange fire and the left side was bright blue electricity. Pretty badass if I do say so myself.
Finally, I put on the iron mask that I went nowhere without. I had used it to hide my identity when escaping the facility that kept me. I found it in an alleyway and decided to keep it. Since then it had been worn down slightly. It had many scratches and scars from the bullets it had deflected. I had also carved a skull into it a few years ago. Blackwatch soldiers had taken notice of this in the encounters I had with them as I always wore the mask. They had taken to calling me Death. I, honestly, couldn't blame them. I guarantee that every Blackwatch soldier that has seen me in person died within the next few seconds, if not minutes.
I didn't really take to using my powers too often as I didn't want to attract too much attention to myself if I were to have to defend myself. That being said, I looked toward the melee weapon belt that sat on my dresser and started to reach toward it, but I hesitated as I did so. I was only going out for a little run. I wouldn't run into that much trouble. I was sure of it.
"I think that's enough," I thought to myself. "Time to go." I opened up the window and jumped out. Luckily, there were no civilians around my landing spot so I didn't have to adjust my fall.
The ground cracked as I hit it. One of the effects of being a Prototype was the increased weight. I had more mass than Mercer or Heller, so I made a bigger crater. I started off slowly walking straight before I sped up to full speed sprinting. I, eventually, reached a building and jumped towards it.
As I neared the building in the air, I stuck one foot out in front of me. It embedded itself up to the ankle into the building. I quickly brought the other foot up and pushed into the building again. I repeated the process which effectively propelled me up the building. When I reached the top, I did a front flip and ran across the rooftop.
With the building's edge nearing me, I prepared myself to jump. Another perk of being a Prototype was your jumping. With enough work, you could jump up to eighty feet high. Alongside that, you could run about 60 MPH and strike with an insane amount of force.
I finally reached the edge of the building and launched myself as high as possible. From this view I could see most of the YZ. I don't mean to sound too soft but the sight was beautiful. The sun was behind the buildings of the Red Zone giving them the look of a golden city on the horizon although, the Red Zone was almost literally hell on earth.
I continued running along the rooftops of the YZ for a few minutes until I heard gunshots.
"And I thought today was going to be peaceful," I said to myself. Hearing theses gunshots severely pissed me off. I decided to go see what was going on. Pretty soon I came across about 50 Blackwatch soldiers opening fire on a group of innocent civilians. Although it was a normal sight to see civilians being slaughtered, you always had to feel remorse for them.
You see, where Heller and Mercer more than likely considered civilians as a collateral damage kind of thing, I tended to try to look out for them if I ever got into an altercation. They were innocent and didn't deserve to die, so why not try not to kill them. I admit some civilians had gotten into the crossfire every now and then, but compared to Mercer and Heller I was a saint.
I gave a moment of silence for the civilians before inspecting what gear the soldiers had. I spotted a few rocket launchers and grenade launchers, but most of them had either an assault rifle or a light machine gun. I also spotted what looked like their most recent model of a viral detector off to the side of the company, but it was circular at the top.
Then, I spotted someone that I hadn't seen in a few years. The one man who I had vowed to kill if it was the last thing I'd do. He is the one who made me into what I am today. The one who had killed me, so to speak.
His name was Michael Scarrow. Michael was the man who had dragged me away for experimenting. My parents tried to save me but Michael being in Blackwatch decided to put a bullet in their brains. I was crushed when he did that and vowed to one day kill him. It was going to be easier since he was the one who ordered the multiple scarring experiments. I was going to have fun ripping his beating heart out of his chest.
Not wanting to waste anymore time, I launched high off of the building and prepared to bullet dive into the middle of the soldiers. Apparently, one of them heard me jump because I heard him yell at me. I quickly thrusted down and flew down to the soldiers.
"Scatter," one soldier yelled, and they did exactly that. I slammed the ground with, more than likely, the force of a freight train.
Honestly, I had always been wanting to test out how much force one of those bullet-dive drops did.
Some of the Blackwatch soldier didn't manage to get out of range in time and were sent flying several feet in the air. My impact had managed to force up quite the cloud of dust. I quickly activated my thermal vision which allowed me to see all sources of heat within the vicinity. I saw some of said sources clustered together.
"I wonder what they're up to."
As the dust cleared, Michael saw me and started speaking to me.
"Well, boy, you finally decided to show your face around me again, did you? How many years has it been?" I simply stared back in silent rage. Rage that was threatening to completely overwhelm me. "Oh, scary. The silent treatment! I'm so scared of you, Death! That's what the soldiers call you isn't it? It absolutely terrifies me. Whatever shall I do?!"
"You're gonna die, bitch. Today is the day you die. You're just another soldier like the rest of these pathetic excuses of men."
Michael gave me a loud laugh before he started speaking again.
"That's where you're wrong Kyle. I'm not some ordinary soldier. I'm just like you if you catch my drift."
"Hmm. Is that so? Then let's see what you got."
Just as I was about to rush Michael, he started up the weird machine. A white, swirling space formed at the circle at the top.
"Say hello to the newest and most advanced piece of technology on this earth, boy. An inter-dimensional portal device." The machine suddenly started blinking red from the bulb at the top as well as give off an annoyingly loud blaring noise.
"ALERT," the machine wailed. "MALFUNCTION! MALFUNCTION! EVACUATE ALL PERSONNEL WITHIN A 100 YARD RADIUS!"
"No," Michael yelled. "Why the hell aren't you working?!"
I could feel my grip on the concrete beneath me slipping. I looked down to see a few pebbles and such begin crawling towards the white vortex. Soon, I felt myself slowly being tugged toward the direction for the portal as well as every one of the Blackwatch soldiers. I'll admit that is was amusing to see the soldiers get pulled into the portal like a bunch of ragdolls but, I needed to worry about my own skin right now.
In an attempt to stop my movement, I quickly thrusted my hands into the concrete beneath my feet. Unfortuanately, it didn't hold for long before I started slipping out of my grip with a large concrete block accompanying me. I stole a glance from behind me and was met with the sight of Michael trying to keep from falling in the portal as well. I wasn't going to be having any of that shit. If I was going down I was taking him down with me.
It's just what he deserved.
I let go of the ground and let the portal drag me as I started running at full speed toward Michael. If you could call it that, really. The portal allowed just pretty much drug me in a straight line on the ground until a sharp turn that traveled into the swirling vortex.
"Michael," I yelled as I ran towards the Blackwatch commander. He looked towards me with his mask's glowing, blue eyes. "You die today you son of a bitch!" I tackled him just as I said that and we flew into the portal. I had absolutely no idea what was going to happen; however, I did know that I was about to kill the man who had ruined my life along with countless others.
POV: 3rd Person
Twilight Sparkle couldn't possibly be any more aghast than she was at this moment. She couldn't think of any words to describe her utter happiness at the events than had happened within the last few days. She could have never expected this when she helped her friends defeat Nightmare Moon a few years ago. She would have never imagined that she would one day be crowned as a princess of Equestria.
A few days earlier, it had seemed like a normal day to Twilight. She had gotten up in the morning humming a catchy tune that came to her head. She knew that it was going to be a wonderful day. She just knew it. Call it mare's intuition. She went through the town singing about her pure joy of being in ponyville. That was until she got splashed with a raincloud full of water.
"Rainbow Dash, that's not funny," Twilight said, mildly annoyed. Though she was not met with the usual tomboyish voice that she was used to, she was met with the voice of a more posh voice. Giving a startled look towards the source of her voice, she saw something that had, needless to say, shocked the living hell out of her.
There was her friend Rarity but on her flank was not the normal cutie mark that she should have.
On her flank was Rainbow Dash's cutie mark.
"Terribly sorry, darling," Rarity said. "I'm afraid I'm not good with the thundery ones."
"*Gasp*And something tells me that everything is not going to be fine," Twilight said worriedly. Twilight continued to ask Rarity questions about what was going on. Upon further investigation, Rarity told Twilight that Rainbow Dash was in her cottage. There was nothing normal about that.
As she and Spike arrived at "Rainbow Dash's" cottage, they knocked on the door. Rainbow Dash came out very soon with a worried expression
"Hey guys," Rainbow said.
"Rainbow Dash, why is Rarity doing your job," Twilight asked. A sudden crash made Rainbow Dash jump in shock and retreat back into the small house. "And what in Equestria is going on in…!" Twilight and Spike were met with an almost literal face full of chaos. There were animals absolutely everywhere. An animal had landed on top of Rainbow Dash's head, and Rainbow Dash, in return, grabbed it, flew it up to a bird cage, and chucked it in. Twilight looked at the creature and saw that it was Pinkie Pie's pet crocodile, Gummy.
Twilight went to all of the places that her friends and her had often met up and was met with the same sight every single time. Her friends didn't have their correct cutie mark. In a fit of paranoia she rushed back to the library. As she opened the door, she danced nervously on her hooves and rushed into her library.
"Why is this happening," her assistant, Spike, exclaimed. Twilight began to explain what had happened the previous night before. Starting with her getting the package from Celestia and ending when she said that she cast the spell but nothing happened.
It did take some time, but Twilight had managed to figure out a way to get her friends' cutie marks back to their original owner. She had shown her friend, Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash's cottage. Twilight had asked Fluttershy to help out Rainbow Dash with her animals. Fluttershy was reluctant, but she went, nonetheless.
As Spike, Twilight, and Fluttershy arrived at the cottage, there was a loud bang from the inside of the door. Long story short, Fluttershy had managed to regain her cutie mark by finding her true talent once again. Being done with Fluttershy, The trio went to each of their friends' homes and such to get them back in their right mind.
Soon, the friends were reunited together once again. As they were in the middle of a group hug, Twilight had something spark in her brain. She knew how she could fix Starswirl's spell! Twilight and her friends all rushed to Twilight's literal treehouse.
She quickly picked up a quill and began reciting her words as she wrote.
"From all of us together, together we are friends. With the marks of our destinies made one, there is magic without end." Just as Twilight struck down on the paper to make the period at the end of the sentence, something frightening happened.
Twilight's horn had started to glow randomly. Suddenly, all of the other mares' necklaces shot out beams of their own respective color towards Twilight, and surrounded her in a glowing white orb. After a few seconds, Twilight has disappeared and left a smoking scorch mark where she was recently. Her friends started screaming at the absence of their friend.
Twilight had found herself in somewhere unknown to her. To her it looked like Luna's night sky, but not as dark. "Hello," Twilight called out, hoping someone would hear her. Soon her mentor, Princess Celestia, came walking out of the seemingly endless void.
"Congratulations, Twilight," Celestia began. "I knew you could do it."
"Princess? I don't understand. What did I do?"
"You did something today that's never been done before. Something that even a great unicorn like Starswirl the Bearded was not able to do because he did not understand friendship as you do. The lessons you learned here in Ponyville have taught you well. You have proven that you're ready Twilight."
"Ready? Ready for what?"
Celestia guided Twilight through her various memories in life everywhere from her struggling to learn her first spells up to her adventures in Ponyville. Again, long story short, something miraculous happened. As Twilight came out of the odd place, a large star, in the form of her cutie mark, arrived in the sky. Her friends quickly ran outside to find out what was going on. Soon it lowered to the ground and started to fade away.
When the star completely faded, Twilight was in its place, but she was different this time. She came out of the star not as a normal unicorn, but as an alicorn. Her friends, who were utterly speechless, started to marvel at her new wings, unknowing of Princess Celestia coming to them from the sky. With a heartfelt moment, Celestia explained that Twilight was now a princess and was no longer her student in the same manner of which she had been.
The coronation had been scheduled a few days afterwards in honor of the new Princess Twilight. Celestia had invited a great amount of ponies to watch this modern legend.
"Fillies and gentlecolts," Celestia started. "May I present for the very first time, Princess Twilight Spa-" She had never gotten to finish her sentence because at that moment a white portal opened up in the middle of the throne room. The doors to said room opened with singing mares following Twilight but stopped once they saw the sight. The portal simply stayed there for a few seconds before an odd looking creature fell through the portal.
It was black all over except for where its face was. It had glowing blue eyes along with a blade looking item on its left arm. Covering its body were various item that looked like pouches with what looked like a piece of metal strapped to its right leg. Soon, more of the same creatures had followed suit. This was where the real fun began. A being that was dressed in black and yellow came next. It lacked the blade on its arm but had the same glowing, blue eyes that its brethren had. Otherwise that was where the similarities ended.
The final being to come out of the portal was the biggest of them all. It had completely dwarfed all of the others that it followed. It had a black jacket of intricate design on its back along with denim looking pants adorning its legs along with some boots on its feet.
The jacketed creature caught the black and yellow one in midair and threw it into the ground quickly, shattering the marble from the impact. The portal closed as the behemoth landed on the ground, dust scattering from the landing. The black and yellow creature quickly recovered from this blow somehow, and began speaking to its jacketed counterpart.
"Oh, ho ho! Looks like we're still alive, old friend. Of course, you wouldn't want to harm any innocents would you? Look around," The other spoke. Apparently, its name was Michael
POV: Death
It was when Michael first spoke that I noticed my surroundings. A room full of big-eyed, technicolored…uhh...horses?
Really, God. Horses?
If I'm being completely honest, I didn't know exactly what to make of the situation. I mean, how many people have had this happen to them before?
I took a quick glance behind me due to my scanning of the room. Upon doing so, I noticed three horses that were taller than all of the rest and intricately dressed. (Rhyme) I was shocked, to say the least. They, honestly, looked horrible, but they must've held some kind of command over the other ponies. Why else would they be dressed like that? If that was the case then I needed them to get this room evacuated.
"Can you understand me," I asked them as I quickly laid my eyes back upon Michael. 'Oh, good God, Kyle. Really? They're horses! The chance that they can even think the same word is you is completely-'
"Yes," one replied.
'Wow. I stand corrected.'
"What a lucky chance then. Can you do me a massive favor…?"
I wasn't about to start calling genders out on someone I didn't know. That happened before, and, needless to say, it was awkward.
"Celestia," the voice responded to my question. I definitely sounded like a female, but I couldn't worry about that right now. I needed to kill this man in front of me.
"Celestia." I said the name again as if testing how it felt on my tongue. Very smooth. A little odd though.
"What is the meaning of this, creatures?!" Uh-uh. Nope. I was not about to go through some long explanation while the man I had waited to kill for the last three years stood in front of me while being…surprisingly quiet.
"I need you to evacuate this room please." The voice, I still didn't know its owner, mind you, quickly took up an annoyed tone at my avoidance of its question.
"Why, you interrupted one of the most moment-"
"NOW PLEASE! Save the nagging for later. I need this room evacuated now. Unless, of course, you and your people can take heavy blood and gore. I wouldn't want their massive eyes to see all of what's about to happen." This is when Michael butted in.
"Oh, hell no you don't," he said as he grabbed a random horse. "No one is going anywhere. If I'm going down, I'm taking people with me." This was a bad mistake to say because when he finished, he was rocketed towards me with his stomach protruding and his limbs far behind him. I didn't care how it happened, but I wasn't going to miss my chance of getting a good blow.
'There's the bull's eye!'
I quickly turned my hands into my muscle mass power. This power transformed my arms into pure muscle, effectively doubling my melee damage output. In other words, I could punch as hard as a freight train with this power and my body put together. In fact, I remember one time when I was in the red zone trying these things out. I ended up punching a normal infected as hard as I could and it exploded. Yes, exploded. I didn't believe it either, but it happened.
Just as Michael reached me I drew my arm back and punched forward as hard as I could. This turned Michael into a bullet headed back to where he was blasted from. He sailed out into the hall and through multiple walls. I took this chance to see that the one who had blasted him was a horse with both wings and a horn. God, what were they called? Unipegs? No, that wasn't it. Alicorns! That's what they were called!
This one was lavender colored with a dark, dark teal (or purple? I honestly don't know) mane with two highlights side by side. One was a slightly lighter shade than her normal mane color, but her second highlight was a hot pink color.
"Thanks," I said to her before staring back at Celestia and raising my mask. I needed some time to give her a quick rundown on what was going on. When I rested my gaze upon her I was met with the furious look of a big freaking horse.
"Listen, Celestia. I can explain everything later, but right now I need to kill him. He will try to end this world if I don't." She gave a confused look in response.
"W-What? What are you talking about?"
"I mean just what I say. I need to go now."
"How do I know that I can trust you, Creature? In my opinion, you look far more evil than your friends."
"Listen, you're just gonna have to trust me on this, alright. I can't keep stalling with this. I need to go now"
The big, white horse's voice gained a grave tone to it. "Okay then, creature; however, if I figure out that you are lying to me, your punishment afterwards will be severe. Tell me, what is your name?"
That horse had the audacity to challenge me? Really? That line was being drawn here and now.
"Kyle Drake, or Death, if you want to get informal." I flipped my mask down in preparation for my upcoming battle. "And Celestia?"
"Hmm?"
"Watch that mother-fucking tone you speak to Death with."
I could see shocked face and dropped jaws from all over the room at what I had just said. I had been a little harsh, I will admit that. But no one, No one speaks to me like that
I morphed my right arm into a massive blade that was almost as big as I was as I launched myself forward and began to sprint to where Michael's imprint in the wall had been. And with that, the battle officially began. (Battle tunes anyone? How about Hollywood Undead-We Are)
I jumped through the seemingly endless amount of holes in the walls that Michael had left. Just as I was about to jump through the final hole I felt something behind me. I tried to take a glance but was met with the fist of my arch-enemy. The force sent me flying out into the city streets like a crashing UFO. I left a deep trench as I was trying to recover from the hit.
I soon rolled over backwards on my feet while holding my blade in a defensive stance, should Michael have decided to follow up on his attack. He stupidly didn't and just slowly walked towards me, rattling with that useless gaping face-hole of his.
"That's where the difference between me and you sets in Death. I can thin-"I'd had enough talking and launched my whipfist at him. He didn't have the time to dodge as he didn't expect me to do that. My whipfist speared him straight through the chest and embedded itself there. I pulled as hard as I could to get him off of his feet. It worked very well since he flew through the air straight towards me.
I quickly changed back to my muscle mass and gave him a powerful uppercut that sounded like his spine even broke from the impact. Not wanting to waste precious time, I grabbed Michael's foot as he started sailing up towards the sky. It was extremely difficult with the amount of force I put in, but I managed to grab a hold of both of his feet and slam him back down into the ground at my feet. He gave a yelp of pain as he tried to get back up from the barrage. He then did something I didn't expect.
He armored himself up. That armor was so strong that the user could take multiple tank shots while only feeling a slight amount of the force. It would be hard to hurt him while he had that thing activated. He then activated his powers which were the typical double axehand of the evolved. Childs play.
Michael charged at me, apparently trying to run me through. I met him halfway with my hammerfists. We struggled at first, but I eventually overcame his strength. I managed to get him to his knees before slamming one of my hammerfists down on him. Seeing that Michael was dazed, I continued the assault before jumping in the air and slamming both of my fists down onto him. I grabbed him by the neck and chucked him into the closest building that I could find.
I walked behind Michael as he soared through the walls of the building. As I stepped into the building I noticed two mares…umm… How do I say this? Ugh… Getting it on?
"AAAHHHH," one of them screamed. "GET OUT GET OUT GET OUT!"
"Sorry ladies," I replied. "Just passing through. You should really find somewhere else to do that other than a house." They both gave me an incredulous look as I stepped through the other hole in the wall. I spotted Michael attempting to get up. It was, unsurprisingly, amusing to see him this way. In an attempt to save his energy he deactivated his armor and axe-hands. It was my time to shine. I would make him pay for what he did to me.
Out the corner of my eye, I spotted four ponies: Celestia, Twilight Sparkle, and the other two who had been at Celestia's side during the interruption.
"I guess I'll show off a tiny bit, I suppose," I thought. I switched to my tendrils so that I could suspend Michael and go to town on him. I hit him twice with my tendrils as he tried to rush me yet again. He was now suspended in the air by tendrils holding onto buildings and trees alike.
I switched to my claws, the one power that I had not used yet. Michael was yelling profanities as I approached him. He was scared. I could hear it in his voice. That was good. I wanted him to be scared. I wanted him to beg for his life. I wanted him to scream for mercy as I took his life from him, just as he did me a few years ago.
Quickly throwing a flurry of slashes all over Michael, I realized his regenerative powers had depleted completely. He was now mortal again, and bleeding out. I cut the tendrils suspending him down, and he fell to the ground with a yell of pain.
I slowly started walking towards the man who had screwed my life over. Michael was trying to crawl away. He was begging for me to let him live. It was beautiful satisfaction.
"Come on, Kyle. You don't have to do this. We can start over, please! I'm sorry," he pleaded.
"No. You have no idea of the pain I went through, the shit I've gone through, the pain I've endured. I'm glad this moment has shined itself in front of me. This is better than Christmas, honestly," I replied as I grabbed him by his throat and picked him up.
A being put what felt like their fist on me. I turned to find that it was Celestia herself who had stopped me. She had, thankfully, ditched the hideous trash that she had been wearing before. I couldn't, honestly, believe that I was focusing on something as little as a dress right now.
"Don't, Kyle. You will have to live with the guilt of his death on your consciousness as long as you live. He is begging to be spared Kyle. Leave him be, and he will meet Equestrian justice. He will pay for trying to harm one of my subjects," Celestia said. I thought it over for a few seconds before I threw Michael down to the ground.
"Thank you, thank you, Kyle! You won't regret this! I swear you will not," Michael thanked. He honestly didn't believe he was going to walk away alive for what he had done to me did he? "Wait. What are you doing? No, stop! Please, stop! No, please do-" That was the last I would hear or see of Michael Scarrow. I had stomped on his head, and left a pool of blood where my foot was. As I felt his body morph into mine, I had a look into his memories. By god, they were horrible.
Celestia was absolutely stunned by what I had just done. She, apparently, had never seen that kind of gore before. It was then that I noticed the stares. It looked like everyone in the town had been there to watch me do what I did. I simply stared back at her from behind my mask. I stuck my hand out for a handshake and said, "Death. At your service, your highness." She stared at me as if I had killed someone she dearly loved.
I could already tell that this place was going to be fun.
Author's Note
A/N: This story is being posted straight from fan fiction. I will update it there first before here, so follow me on fan fiction if you want the chapters first. I also need Guardian55 on fan fiction to edit the first few chapters since our writing is so dramatically different. He is WAY better than I am. That's for sure. Anywyays, I'm actually scared about posting this because I see fimfiction as the Big Boy League for MLP fanficiton. I'm scared about posting this story actually.
I also put the first and second chapters together for the possibility of passing the Mods. Dunno if it will or not at the time of posting this message.
I would really appreciate some art for this story. I would like a cover that looks good for this story. The person who I choose will get a mention in every single chapter.
Also, yes. I ripped the entire explanation about Blacklight from the P2 recap feature.
*The flesheater knife was actually developed by my sensei's sensei, Mr. Arsenio James Advincula. It was designed entirely for the purpose of killing and fighting, hence the name.
Edit: Guardian didn't edit this. I did. A concerned reader felt that the dialogue was rushed like a nitro junkie on crack and so, I added some shit. I will say this though: I'm getting theez theengs edited soon.
POV: Death
A few hours had passed since the battle, and I was now being lead to the castle dungeons. Why, you may ask? I had just saved this entire country, more than likely, by killing Michael. Why on earth would I be going to the dungeons if I was a savior? It was simple, really. I had, apparently, screwed up by turning Michael's head into dust. Celestia hadn't really thought what I did was right, so she ordered her guards to take me to the castle dungeons along with the rest of the Blackwatch soldiers.
The guards, though, were the most pathetic excuses of protectors I had ever seen. Then again, that is coming from someone who is virtually indestructible, but the guards were shaking in their boots at me. They tried to act brave around Celestia and her other 3 friends, but they hadn't done too well of a job at that. I could still see them shake in fear occasionally. They had also tried to cuff me in an attempt that was mildly amusing, to say the least.
They were some sort of "magic" cuffs. From what I saw, only the unicorns had the abilities to perform magic, besides the alicorns. I also saw a few pegasi, as well. I guessed that's what they were since all they had was wings. I'd read mythology before, so that's what I had taken to calling them. The same went for the unicorns, though I hadn't figured out what the normal ponies were called. I hadn't heard anything on the way to the dungeons so I didn't know what to call them. I simply settled on "land" ponies.
The magic cuffs, although cool, to say the least, were very fragile and meant for pony strength. I figured this out when I had felt something like a bite at the back of my head and quickly raised my hand to rub it away. The cuffs shattered like glass and faded into nothingness as they fell. I got a glimpse of some ponies' faces and they were absolutely shocked by what I had done.
'Someone say that I'm not strong now,' I thought to myself. No one had.
As the multiple guards and I reached the dungeons, I figured that they must not have been used in a long time. Celestia did say that herself, of course. There was dust and cobwebs everywhere: in the cells, on the cell bars, and even one right in the middle of the walkway.
The guards hadn't re-cuffed me after I shattered them the first time, so I moved the web out of the way and kept walking. The place was dark, save for a torch every now and then.
We walked for a little longer before the guards told me to go into the next cell on my right. They had done the right thing by putting me by myself without a Blackwatch soldier in my cell, but screwed up by putting me in the middle of all their cells. Some of the Blackwatch soldiers hadn't woken up yet, but most of them were.
Though I couldn't see any of their expressions, I knew they held either anger, hatred, or fear towards me. Hopefully most of them were fear. I would be able to give them a heart attack if I had scared them enough.
The cells were what you would typically imagine from a castle dungeon. They were all concrete with a concrete bench stretching out the back wall. A bed, if you could call it one, that would be extremely hard for anyone to sleep on. It was what you deserved if you had managed to get thrown in here. I wasn't deserving of this place, but I wasn't complaining. That flowing-haired bitch would get what was coming to her soon enough.
For the time being, I had decided to simply sit and think about what had transpired within the past hour, or so. I had found Michael. He activated a portal which sucked up his company, him, and me all in one. We landed in the middle of some massive event in a royal throne room. I had killed Michael, and then was thrown in the dungeon with a group of baby-killing freaks. I didn't know when I would be able to get out, but I could wait as long as anyone else could. I would have easily broken the iron cell bars, but I didn't want to put these ponies in more of a panic than they already were.
I was soon interrupted from my thoughts by a Blackwatch soldier.
"Hey, Death," he said. I looked at him and gave no response. "How's it going?" I gave him a scoff in response. "I heard your parents screamed."
…
…
He just dug his own grave by saying that. He knew it too, but for some oddball reason, he didn't really seem to care.
"What was it like to see your parents die in front of you?" Those were his last words. I shot my whipfist at him through the bars and sliced him cleanly in half at the waist. That kind of shit was why Blackwatch needed to be erased. He may have just been curious, but I highly doubt that.
"Anyone else," I called out. "Anyone else want to make a comment and die?" Silence was what I got in return. Deciding that I wouldn't be out for a while, I took my belt off and let my knives drop to the ground around me. I took my jacket off along with my hoodie and mask. I was sitting there in only my jeans, t-shirt, and boots, and I was comfortable.
I ran my hands along my pockets to see if I had anything in my jeans, and it turns out I did. I had unknowingly grabbed my iPhone back at my apartment and put it in my pocket. I thought that I would play some music to get my mind off of things. I scrolled through the iPod app and settled on the song "Nightmare" by Avenged Sevenfold.
I didn't want to sit there and listen to the song while doing nothing so I decided to work out a bit. I did some sit-ups, pushups, and some other simple ones. My favorite ones, though, were handstand pushups and pull-ups. I liked to push myself when working out to get myself stronger. Though I never gained strength, it was nice to, at least, act like I was still a human.
For the next few hours I had worked out. Some of the Blackwatch soldiers started to come out of their shell and talking to one another. They asked questions like "Where are we", "Where's the commander?" and "How long until we get out?" I suppose they had all fallen asleep. I was extremely bored so I decided to go ahead and walk around the castle to familiarize myself with it.
I walked up to the cell bars after putting all of my items back on myself, and pulled them apart. They were surprisingly difficult to move. It wasn't hard to move them, of course, but they were stronger than they looked. Quickly throwing my hood and mask on, I made my way to the end of the hallway that led to the rest of the castle. I checked my phone for the time and it read 12:11 P.M.
"Damn," I thought. "I've been busy for a while, haven't I?" I eventually came to the door to the castle. I tried the handle to see if it was locked. To my surprise, it wasn't. "They probably didn't think anyone would be able to breakout." I thought. I peeked through the door slowly, so as to make sure there were no guards around to spot me. Luckily, there were none.
I slowly closed the door behind me as I entered the hallway. I expected this place to be big, so I would take my time to make details of everything I saw. I began walking to nowhere in particular. Along my way, I passed many doors. How anyone ever found their room in this castle I'll never know.
At that point I heard two voices coming my way. Quickly looking around, I saw no places to hide. I could run to the corner at the other end of the hall, but that would not be sufficient. It was a long hallway with no turns in it. I looked up to see if there was a skylight that I could use, but I saw none. The ceiling was high enough for someone to not notice me, though.
Settling on the ceiling, I jumped up and dug my hands and feet into it. I quickly crawled towards the corner the voices were coming from. I was surpsided that it could hold my weight, but why would I do this, you may ask? Because it is harder to notice somebody right above your head, rather than a few feet both in front and above you. By getting closer, I could make sure that I was out of their peripheral vision when they that turned the corner.
When the voices came into view, I saw two ponies: Twilight Sparkle and some white stallion with a blue mane.
"Don't worry Twily," the white one said. "I'm sure that it won't harm you. Didn't you say that it had wanted to evacuate the throne room?"
"Yes," Twilight responded. "I still can't help but feel scared when I looked into its eyes for that brief moment. I could tell that that thing was angry. It didn't act like it, surprisingly enough, but it was."
"Don't worry. It won't hurt you from the sounds of it. Even if it did, it would have the entire crystal empire and royal guard to deal with. I doubt it could withstand against a few soldiers, much less two massive armies."
"Try me, bitch. I've killed things that are 50 goddamn feet tall and taken shots from things that could level skyscrapers." I thought to myself. "I could take on you ponies any day and win."
"I know, Shining Armor. I know. I'll try to not think about it for now. We need to hurry up and get to Celestia's room. Luna and Cadance are already there, more than likely."
That caught my attention. I had been wanting to confront the bitch who had thrown me in the dungeon. If these two were going to be there, then Celestia may have been as well. I could get some answers from her.
As soon as Twilight and Shining Armor had rounded the next corner, I dropped from the ceiling and silently jogged up to the corner they went around. I slowly peered around and saw them turn to a corner on the right. This would have been easier if I had consumed a guard, but I didn't want to seem like an asshole. I had never tried consuming something of another species. I wasn't sure if it would work or not. Through the countless infected I had consumed, however, I figured out one thing: You could not take the form of another being infected with the Blacklight virus. You could take their memories, but not their shape.
I soon got to the corner that the two ponies did and peered around to see if they were still there. I saw them entering a room with large double doors and a sun on the front of it.
"Perfect," I said to myself. I quickly ran up to the door, silently, of course, and stood next to it. I wanted to hear what was going on.
"Ah, thou art here at last," I heard one voice say. It spoke with an Old English type of language.
"Sorry everypony," I heard Twilight apologize. "Shining Armor and I were talking on the way here and we took our time."
"It is fine Twilight," Celestia said "Were you followed?"
"No, we weren't. There wasn't anywhere for anypony to hide on our way here. I'm sure of it."
"Good. Now we can discuss what we are to do with the creature named Kyle Drake."
That was a start. I needed somewhere that I could have listened in on this conversation easier, and somewhere I wouldn't be caught. I remembered seeing a balcony outside of the castle when Michael and I fought. If this was Celestia's bedroom, then chances were that that balcony was hers. It made sense for a Princess to have a balcony.
I found the nearest window to jump out of. Of course, I looked around for guards before I did so. Satisfied that there weren't any, I grabbed hold of the side of the window and threw myself on the wall. I started to wall run in a diagonal form towards the balcony. To make a quieter approach I jumped up at started gliding towards the balcony.
I grabbed onto the edge of the balcony when it came into reach and pulled myself up. I could hear much better from this position compared to the door.
"I don't know, Auntie," I heard an unknown voice say. "He seemed fine to me. He had a level head when he arrived here. He wanted the ponies in the throne room evacuated for their safety. I don't think he is all that bad, honestly."
"You saw what he did, Cadance," Celestia began. "That creature he was fighting was begging for his life. Kyle killed him anyway. He seemed like he was happy to kill the other creature. I will admit that it was honorable of him to want to evacuate the room so that no innocents would get hurt, buthe still ended the life of another. You know that that does not go well with the Equestrian law."
"But sister, who knows what that other creature Kyle was fighting hoped to gain. We…er… I know that thou saw what he had done. He grabbed an innocent pony in hopes that if he died, he would take a life with him," I heard the archaic speaker say.
"While that is true Luna, I still can't help but feel he is not normal. Like he isn't natural. I don't think any being should be able to do what he did without remorse, much less actually do it in the first place."
Damn right I'm not natural. And you're standing up for that dead baby-killer? Really? "But maybe he could be used for good." What? Did Celestia just say that I could be used for good? Wasn't I good enough already? I saved her damn subjects!
"How," Twilight asked.
"He seemed to know what he was doing in battle, and the creatures that came through the portal looked like they were outfitted for combat. Perhaps they were a form of military, or something close to that."
"What does that have to do with anything," Shining Armor asked.
"Simple," Celestia said. "Since Kyle has dealt with these people before, he could have some military experience. We could have him train the royal guards. He, obviously, knows how to fight in hand-to-hand combat, and that could give the guards major aid."
"With all due respect Princess, the guards are fine." Shining Armor retaliated. "They performed their duties today admirably."
"Should you have been there when Kyle was being led to the dungeons, you would know what I mean. The guards put magic cuffs on him and he broke out of them. Without meaning to from the looks of it."
I didn't like the sound of this. Celestia was going to try and have me train some scared ass guards? I couldn't believe what I was hearing. I had to stop this now before it got too far.
I quickly pushed the doors open while saying, "You can't possibly be serious about that, can you?" I had, almost literally, scared the piss out of all of them. I saw them all light their horns up a launch different stuff at me. Time seemed to go in slow motion for me over the next few seconds.
I raised my hands up to attempt to activate my shields but was met with the sight of dark grey, stone looking, armor. I had taken all of the attacks without feeling much of anything at all.
I was now jumping up and down on the inside. I had taken Michael's armor ability! It was a surprise to me since I had never consumed an evolved infected before. I was ecstatic that I had gained Michael's power. Perhaps I had gained something else along with this. It took a few seconds for the ponies to recover from shock before starting to question me.
"Why aren't you in the dungeon? How did you escape," Celestia asked with slight anger.
"I'm not in the dungeon because I don't want to be. I simply pulled the bars to my cell apart. You should also tell your guards to start locking doors to the dungeon too. Leaving a dungeon unlocked? Who does that?" I said in response. I turned to Shining Armor. "You want to bet that I can take on both of the armies you claim I can't? I could take 100 of you on and not break a sweat."
"How did you...?" He asked shocked.
"You and Twilight don't look up on the ceiling very often, do you?" Both Twilight and Shining Armor blushed slightly in embarrassment. I turned to Cadance and Luna. I assumed Luna was the dark blue pony with the night mane and Cadance was the one pink one with the tri-colored mane. "Pleasure to meet you both. How's it going?" No response.
"Right. Anyway, what do you mean having me train your guards? Even you saw how terrified of me they were, Celestia."
"I know. That is why I would like you to train them. First of all, do you have any military experience?"
"Yes, an insane amount."
"Good. Now, there is one final question."
"And what may that be?"
"Would you allow my sister, Luna, and I access to your memories, for now? We must make sure that you are not wanting to harm anypony while you are here. We only just met you today, and I would be willing to bet that you are stuck in Equestria until you can find a way back home."
I couldn't let them look into my head. I couldn't let them ruin their sanity by doing that. I didn't know how memories looked when traveling through them. Who did? I could imagine my head being a massive damn maze for them. I doubted that they could find my memories if they tried.
"No."
"Why not? How are we supposed to know of your intentions?"
"I say "no" because I've seen, done, and gone through shit that no one should have. If you tried going through the maze of my mind, you could never find my memories."
This is when Luna chimed in.
"What doth thou speakest of? What doth thou mean by your 'maze of the mind'?"
"I mean just that."
"What do you mean specifically, though?" Celestia asked.
"Do you know what I did to Michael when I killed him?" This question was directed to all of the ponies in the room. Seeing all of them shake their heads, I told them what happened. "I consumed him." I gained puzzled looks in response.
"To me, consuming someone allows me to become them. I am able to take their looks and memories."
"How is that possible," Twilight inquired. "How are you able to do that? And also, what are you? I've never read about any species that looked like yours before."
"I am a human. Well, I used to be. To answer your first question, I am able to copy that thing down to a cellular level. My cells copy theirs and allow me to become a perfect copy of that thing I consumed."
"What do you mean you used to be," Cadance asked.
"I'm not human anymore. I'm a living, breathing virus." At this they all gave me odd looks. To end their confusion I gave them the whole spew on the history of Blacklight and what it does to you, but I left out my history. I didn't want them knowing what had happened to me.
"What about you then," Celestia asked. "What happened to you? How did you become infected?"
"I will not share that with you. I purposefully left that out. That is also why I don't want you going into my memories. You don't want, or need, to know why I am the way I am." As I finished, I could feel something in my head shift. I quickly put two and two together and looked at Celestia with a death glare. I slowly pulled down my hood and took my mask off without taking my eyes off of hers.
It was then she realized that I had meant what I said. I hadn't wanted her looking into my memories because she didn't need to concern herself with me, and she couldn't have handled it. She didn't appear to be soft, but she didn't look like a rock-hard stone. I slowly approached her, and as I did she got a good look at my scar-riddled face, as well as everyone else in the room.
I had then realized that I was the tallest one in the room. Celestia, excluding her horn, only came up to halfway to my chest. I had assumed that she was a tall pony, as she was the second tallest in the room.
"You know," I began. "I had meant what I said. You shouldn't go digging around in my head. Your sanity is on the line when you do. I will say this only one more time: do not, and I repeat, do not dig around in my head."
Her shock when I had walked back to where I was sitting was immense. I couldn't tell what she was shocked about, but she had, obviously, found something bad in my head. I told her not to, but she did it anyway.
"Where is my room? I'm not going back to that dungeon, and seeing is how I'm training your pets I need a place to stay." She had told me to follow her, and led me out the door and down the hall a little bit. Both of our rooms were in the same hallway. This was probably to show status of some sort.
I gave her a grunt in thanks and closed the door behind me. As I heard her walking away I walked to my bed. I needed some sleep after the day I had. I quickly stripped down to my boxers, jumped in the bed, and fell asleep.
POV: Celestia
I couldn't believe it. I simply refused to believe it. There was no possible way that anypony had the amount of memories he did. I did, of course, find Kyle's memories, but they were so deep in his head that it was shocking that I found them at all. A mind reading spell only takes a few seconds, if that, to work completely.
I made my way back to my room to go meet back with Luna, Twilight, Cadance, and Shining Armor. I needed to tell them what had happened when I ran the spell.
As I walked back into the room, I was met with the worried looks of said ponies.
"Sister, what is wrong? What did thou…err…you find," Luna asked.
"I found his memories," I replied. "But that is the problem. I can understand why he was worried about us going into his mind. He did not want us to worry about what he had gone through. Perhaps so that we wouldn't concern ourselves with him, but the frightening part was how far back in his mind the memories were."
"Auntie," Cadance said. "What did you find? Why is he the way he his?"
"To answer your first question, I found the memories of many other humans. He has killed many more humans than I thought he had, but they were all evil from the looks of it." I wondered how I would answer my niece's second question. I couldn't tell her what happened exactly.
"It is too horrific for anypony to see. I will simply say this: he has seen his own heart in his chest."
Everypony adopted wide eyes as they heard this. They had caught my drift and decided to leave it alone. Taking a glance at the clock in the corner of the room, I saw that it was close to 1:15 in the morning. I decided that everypony needed to get to bed as we had a big day for tomorrow.
"It is late. We all need to get some rest for tomorrow. It will be a very busy day." With that, everypony except Luna left the room. She probably wanted to speak to me about Kyle.
"Sister, what did you see?"
"I saw that he has gone through an immeasurable amount of torture within the past years. His parents were killed in front of him and he was used as a lab rat for an evil company. It is a miracle how he is still alive, much less still sane."
"Has he been broken, Celestia?"
"No. At least, not yet. That is my biggest fear, however. If a being as powerful as him were to snap, the results could be catastrophic."
"Then we must try as hard as possible to keep him unbroken. Do not worry sister. He will be fine."
"Thank you, Luna. I believe it is time for us both to get some sleep. We have a very busy schedule tomorrow. We must get our guest prepared for his new life."
"Indeed. Sleep well Tia."
"You too, Luna. I love you."
"We…I love you too."
I giggled at my sister's slip up of language. She had almost gotten the hang of it after being back from the moon for a few years, but she would make a mistake every once and a while. I needed to go to sleep, so I closed the doors to my balcony, got in bed, and gently pulled the covers over myself.
"Mother, Father," I said aloud. "Please help me protect Equestria. I fear that something bad will happen soon, and I am unsure of what it is. I hope I am wrong. Please allow me to be wrong about this."
And with those final words, I fell asleep.
Author's Note
Letting you guys know now. I am aware that these first few chapters are shit. I hate them too. However, I'm going to have my editor, Guardian55, get to work on these. Truthfully, he doesn't just edit them. He completely rewrites them so that they aren't complete and total shit. Just wait for chapter 8. It'll get better.
I promise!
