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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“Alex.”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

He interrupted with a snap. “No.”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Author's Note

Well this is going onto hiatus for a while until I get AT LEAST one chapter to each of my other stories. Been neglecting them all and that's just not good.