Disclaimer: I own neither Prototype nor Elfen Lied.

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A wise man once said that an eye for an eye makes the whole world blind. Another man once said that he who fights monsters turns into one. Well, I honestly doubt either of those men had to deal with a monster that killed your family, turned you into a freak, and damn near started the zombie apocalypse. That monster's name, is Alex Mercer. And my name, the freak talking, is Darren Maverick, or it was, when I was human. Nowadays, the pricks in uniform call me 'Apollo', or some garbage like that. I honestly don't know what to call myself anymore, so I guess either name works.

Regardless, this is my story.

Twelve months ago I was just a normal 17 year old trying to make it through his junior year of high school. Some would say I wasn't exactly "normal", but I didn't have any problems, I just wasn't much of a people person. I preferred my own company, lets just leave it at that. I wouldn't have called myself a loner, but people looked at me that way. My antisocial tendencies got me into a lot of fights. Its funny how people take silence for weakness, huh? If you want me to be honest, I wasn't big and I wasn't strong, sooo my win-loss ratio didn't look so good… I'll put it that way.

Off to a pleasant start aren't we?

After the viral outbreak at Penn Station, schools began to shut down, and the military poured in and set up bases around Manhattan. To be honest, it wasn't that bad. But things quickly got worse as the days went by. After the military quarantined the island, New York as a whole was placed under a state of emergency. Riots broke out, monsters showed up, and it all went to hell from there. What made matters worse was when this military group called Blackwatch showed up; they were supposed to help contain the virus and squash this thing, but people quickly noticed that they were nothing more than a bunch of Nazis; the bastards killed innocent civilians, infected them on purpose, released monsters into camps filled with innocents, shot civilians and then laughed about it, paid GENTEK to create even more deadly viruses and monsters for their weapons program, you name it.

My parents were having their honeymoon in Japan while all of this was happening, and I was looking after my two younger sisters. The city was known under a new name, New York Zero, and we were trapped here.

But that Mercer asshole, he's where the "new" me fits into all of this...

X

Canal Street sat empty, the once busy shopping district of Manhattan was now but a barren ghost town lined with bodies, or what was left of them, and the destroyed husks of taxis, buses, and other various automobiles. The corpses were at various levels of mutilation. Some were riddled with bullets, torn to pieces by infected, or just turned into a red smear on the pavement by what could only be a tank. The sky was overcast which helped taint the streets a dark gray.

Off in the distance, a loud crash could be heard as a figure in a red and black hoodie, black cargo pants and red sneakers, raced through the streets trying to outrun three hairless monsters.

The teen, displaying an astounding feat of parkour, bounded and flipped over cars and other obstacles. He tried to shake and lose the monsters who simply bulldozed and smashed through any obstacle that could potentially keep them from their target. Despite the creatures sizes, they possessed extraordinary speed as they were quickly catching up to the hooded boy who himself was sprinting around 80mph.

Darren turned his head to see his attackers about a leaps length away from him.

"Shit!" He growled as he leaped up to the side of an apartment and ran vertically up the side of the building. As he hopped to the rooftop he let his arm melt and morph into a black whiplike appendage. He could feel the virus within him shifting and bubbling as he shapeshifted his limb into his ranged weapon. The weapon he called, 'The Whipfist'. The Whipfist could be described as a thin, flexible, blade-edged appendage that could extend at a range of over three city-blocks.

That weapon, and all of the others he'd learned how to form, were all a product of Blacklight. The virus that claimed millions of lives and led to the death of those closest to him, he wielded to do with as he pleased. It was under his control. He honestly could never tell if he was supposed to be happy or disgusted over that fact. The hybrid took a fighting stance and waited for the creatures to jump up the building. 'Come on you fuckin mutts, come and get him.' He challenged in his head.

He waited a second.

Then two.

In one mighty jump the mutants were over the rooftop and diving at the mutant. Darrens superhuman reflexes almost let him see the attackers in slow motion as he shot his whip with pin-point accuracy at the nearest monster, snapping its head from its shoulders, and knocking it off the roof. Maverick had just enough time to swing his whip to the side and knock the monster to the right a distance away, making it tumble and roll to the opposite edge of the building.

The third monster reached its target and tackled its prey to the ground. The viral-hybrid had the wind knocked out of him as he felt the infected beast's weight on top of him. The beast snapped its large jaws filled with large serrated teeth, covered in red liquid that any fool would be able to tell what it was, and where it was from. Darren had to rapidly move his head to avoid getting it chomped off, not that that would kill him, but it wouldn't feel pleasant by any sense of the imagination.

Darren had to think fast and that resulted in him smashing his knee into the gut of the creature. Whether it could feel it or not wasn't the point. It took about three more hits to send the beast flying over him next to the other abomination.

'I really hate Hunters...' Darren thought as he hopped back to his feet. An arrogant smirk etched its way across his face as he formed his hands into two, two-foot long metal claws; sinking into a battle stance at the same time.

"Let's play." He challenged. The truck sized mutants seemed to understand the challenge and charged at him, more aggressive than before. The teen let out a battle cry and sprinted at the monsters. The Hunter that was hit with his whip moments ago seemed to be limping, causing it to fall behind its lesser injured comrade. He charged straight at one of them and made it a point to act as if the beast in front was the main target, when he was a yard's distance away he leaped over the first one's head and thrust his claws into the weaker ones eyes.

Blood shot out of the mutants eyes as it howled in pain. Darren used his free hand to decapitate the injured animal, if it could be called that. The Hunters body slumped down lifeless, its head in the teens grasp, lifeless and eyeless. "And then there was one." The last surviving beast made a futile effort in charging again at the adolescent. "You're not too bright are you?" As the hulking mutant came in range, Maverick grabbed it by the neck and slammed it into the ground over his head behind him. Not exactly a suplex, but close enough. Darren decided to finish the last creature by jumping onto the creature's chest and with his claws began slicing and hacking away at the beasts face and chest cavity. The sound of bone breaking and flesh tearing echoed over the rooftop. Blood, flesh, and gore covered the top of the apartment building as the creature howled out and went silent.

The teen, stood off the creature panting, not because he was exhausted or out of energy, but because it was a reaction he was used to as a human. It was weird that way. The hybrid walked to the edge of the roof, took a deep breath, and examined his surroundings. With his superhuman hearing he could hear the sounds of gunfire, screams, and the chopping of helicopter blades. He could also pick out the occasional car crash. 'Where the hell are you Mercer? I can feel it in my bones, you're nearby somewhere.' He thought. His senses then picked up a signal as his head snapped right. "The Empire State Building!" He leaped off the building he was on and raced to New York's greatest landmark.

X

Atop New York's greatest skyscraper, a hooded man suited in a black leather jacket with red tribal wings designed on the back gazed out over his work. An eternal scowl was plastered on his countenance as he watched the smoke and fire erupt from buildings and into the streets.

Ironically, this was never his goal in the first place. He just wanted answers. But in all honesty, he didn't care who the hell he had to kill or break to get them. Just some time ago he saved this city and its people from a nuclear payload that was set to wipe them off the map.

But, his only reasoning for stopping that nuke was because he benefit from stopping it. There were still people he needed to hunt, questions he needed answered. One woman in this city he needed to protect.

Nothing was gonna stop that. The fact that he even survived the nuke, one of mankind's most destructive weapons, solidified his place on the food chain. People were little more than sheep for him. He was an apex predator. Nothing could change that.

A loud 'thud' caught the man's attention. He turned to see a hooded boy who had a look of raw anger approaching him.

"This ends here Mercer!" The hooded hybrid hissed, barely containing a shout, "You aren't walking away from me… not again..."

Mercer gave the kid a questionable look, before he came to a moment of realization. His deep sullen voice growled out, "Oh yeah, you're that kid, Maverick right? I'm surprised you're still alive after all this time. Now, what do you want?" The virus actually knew exactly what the teen, Darren, wanted, but feigned ignorance.

Darren growled out, "I've come a long way to see this through." his teeth grit, "You... killed them! You fucking killed them, killed this city, and turned me into this, this freak!" As Darren spoke his fists clenched and his eyes squeezed shut as a tear made its way down his cheek.

Mercer crossed his arms and shook his head. 'Pathetic' He thought. But he continued, "Hn, you mean those two? Wasn't anything personal; they were little more than collateral damage. It happens."

This last statement set Darren off like a bomb. Maverick hopped two stories into the air, morphed his right arm into a three meter long blade that he let come down in a wide arc, hoping to bisect Mercer. Unfortunately Mercer only gave half an effort to dodge as he took a wide step back. The cement cracked and shattered from the blow.

Mercer arrogantly scoffed, "Damn you're slow."

Darren ignored the insult and responded with, "Collateral damage, that's all eating two young girls meant to you?"

"Was that not clear? Yeah, I was injured and hungry and needed something to get myself back on my feet. They were unlucky to be around. If you want to blame anyone, blame yourself and the military." Alex mocked.

Once again Darren was sent into a rage as he charged at Mercer with his sword and began swinging at him with no sense of skill or style. Mercer weaved and dodged every time. The force of the teens swings left a trail of red mist.

After noticing he was getting nowhere, the young viral hybrid changed his left hand into his set of claws. When he went to take a swing at Mercers face the ex-scientist grabbed him by the forearm, tore it off, and consumed it. The process of consumption involved the virus absorbing the biomass and DNA of other entities, copying and assimilating every last cell it into their own being in order to gain the entity's genetic memories and physical presence… it was always a messy process.

Maverick let out a scream of pain, and would have grabbed the bloody stump with his right arm if it wasn't a huge blade. Darren sucked up the pain and sprinted at Mercer in an attempt at stabbing the sociopathic murderer.

Mercer almost felt sorry for the kid. After all the blackwatch he consumed, and fights he'd gotten into, he still didn't know how to fight. He grabbed the kids blade and repeated the process with his claws. Maverick let out another cry of pain before he was cut off by Mercer grabbing him by the throat. This caused the teens hood to fall, revealing a boy with medium length black hair in an undercut, the hair which fell in front of his face. Piercing gray eyes bore holes into Alex's.

Mercer shook his head at the hybrid he created in mock sorrow, the entire top part of his face shadowed by his hood with only his mouth visible. This made him extremely intimidating, almost haunting. "Hmph, well you're out of biomass. You should've snacked before you came to me."

Darren wouldn't admit it, or even show it, but he was extremely intimidated, terrified even. He growled a defiant, "Fuck you. Do what you're gonna do already."

"Gladly." Mercer morphed his free hand into a set of claws and brought them an inch away from Darrens eyes before Darren spoke out,

"Why… why did you do this to me? Why didn't you just devour me like you did my siblings?"

Mercer shrugged his shoulders. "I have my reasons." He said simply. But then a look of remembrance came across his face, unknown to Darren as to why. "Actually... thanks for reminding me." Alex let his claws morph back into his hands. "Do me a favor kid, get stronger. Let your hatred for me fuel every decision you make and action you take. When you think you're strong enough, come find me."

"Wh-wait, why are you," Darren was cut off.

"See you around kid." Mercers arms swelled up to the proportion of an olympic lifter, and turned black. Meaning he activated his musclemass ability, before sending a powerful right hook into the teens temple. The blow made the entire right side of Darren's head explode and sent him flying through the guardrail of the Empire State Building.

Darren plummeted down into the chaotic streets of Manhattan at mach speed, before smashing into the streets of Time Square, sending out a shockwave that blasted soldiers, infected, and even tanks hundreds of yards, destroying them.

The wounded boy lay motionless in a crater twenty feet deep. He couldn't hear anything outside of the sounds of approaching military screaming something along the lines of, "Its Maverick!/ Command we have located Maverick/ It's a runner/ Maverick is in our sights." The sound of approaching helicopters and tanks was also prevalent, with some explosions and screaming going on in the background. He only had one eye and he was lying in a position to where he could see nothing.

As his vision began to fade he could faintly hear other voices to fade into his hearing. He could hear two girls calling his name, "Darren/Big Brother help!" He suddenly found himself running through the streets of hell known as New York Zero with two little girls who were all trying to outrun the zombies who were tearing people apart in the streets and chasing down the survivors who were other natives of the city. The streets were paved in blood and limbs as Darren used his father's revolver and shot at oncoming infectees. He never shot a gun before, but he knew enough to know how it worked.

That, and the infected would luckily run up close enough to where he couldn't miss.

"Felicia, Courtney, stay near me!" Darren called as his sisters seemed to keep too far ahead of him. The teen couldn't believe what the hell was going on around him. The amount of chaos he saw was what you could only see in movies, or a video game. He swore he saw a fighter jet fly out of control and smash into a skyscraper, causing the building to collapse. If he didn't know this was just in New York he would have thought this was Armageddon. The blood red sky didn't help matters either. The young adult turned to his left to see a platoon of soldiers in black uniforms gunning down infected. "Felicia, Court, this way!" He began to run to the soldiers and called out, "Please help, we're not infected!"

He saw one of the soldiers, who had to be the captain, point two fingers at them and order, "Them too." The soldiers aimed their guns at the siblings.

Darren, realising he and his sisters fate, "No, No." He breathed in disbelief. He and his sisters huddled up into one hug as they prepared for the end.

"Darren, are we gonna die?" His youngest sister, Felicia, asked him.

Suddenly, they saw a figure fly down and smash into the ground near the soldiers, sending a shockwave that sent Darren and his sisters flying back a distance. Darren landed the furthest away.

"It's Alex Mercer! Open fire!" The commander ordered as his platoon began to fire in vain at the shapeshifter who turned his hands into claws. The hooded man impaled the first soldier he saw in the chest. He then threw that soldier's corpse at another and ran to the commander and sliced him in the gut, emptying his intestines into the street. Mercer decapitated another Blackwatch goon, and then the last one, who survived having a body thrown at him, tried to crawl away, but Mercer grabbed him by his throat, allowing the man to hopelessly plead with Mercer for his life before Alex crushed his head, and consumed him. Black tentacles sprouted out of the virus's form and ripped the soldier's corpse apart and broke it down into nutrients. Leaving nothing but a puddle of blood behind.

Darren and his sisters witnessed the disturbing act. The teen had to resist the urge to vomit. He noticed Mercer looking directly at his siblings as he dashed over in the second it took to blink.

He had them by their throats.

The two girls screamed out for their brother, but Mercer quickly snapped their necks. Everything around Darren went silent, the only thing he could hear was a loud crunch fill his ears. Time seemed to slow down as the boy seethed, "You son of a bitch! YOU SON OF A BITCH!" With tears in his eyes he took his father's revolver and began emptying its chamber into the mass-murderer.

Quickly consuming the two kids, Alex dashed over to the enraged teen, swatted the gun out of his hand and snatching him up by his neck. "I'll kill you, I swear I'll fucking kill you! You psychotic piece of shit!" Darren shouted defiantly, his fingers fighting to pry the mans grip from hs throat.

Alex stared at the kid, thinking, before raising an eyebrow. His hand glowed orange as he shoved it into the teens chest.

Darren screamed, as that had to be the physically most painful experience of his life.

The Prototype's eyes snapped open, only to feel himself naked in a container full of green liquid. Or at least he thought it was green, it could have just been the color of the container, he didn't know.

Outside the tube, he could see what looked like a scientist talking to some other scientists and some military men. Luckily they couldn't see he was awake. He could hear them say something about Japan, and experimentation, and some other scientific bullcrap. What really caught his attention, was what they said about Mercer.

The main scientist, a short caucasian man with thinning gray hair and glasses, who was apparently speaking to the other scientist was saying, "Ever since Mercer left New York, it fell off of Blackwatches radar. It's been over sixty days since it left and if it were capable of being found, you would have by now,"

The BlackWatch captain became enraged by this and barked at the little man, "You underestimatin' my team!?" The soldier got in the scientist's face who took a few steps back. The soldier was pulled back by his men.

The scientist quickly fixed his error, "No Commander Byron, not at all. You just need to understand that if Mercer wanted to be found he would have been. But, if you allow us to keep Subject Maverick, we can not only produce a valid bio-weapon, but a cure for the Blacklight virus if things turn south like it did in Hope, Idaho and Manhattan. Then, we can kill it."

This caused the hybrid inside the rejuvenation tubes eyes to snap open.

The Blackwatch soldiers slowly pulled their weapons, as everyone in the room turned to look at the pissed off Virus. "I think it heard you." One of the soldiers said.

In one swift kick the glass in the tube shattered and the mutant leapt out and tackled the main scientist, giving a quick hard punch to his face, smashing his skull, and consumed him. The virus quickly shut out the oncoming memories that came with consumption. He got pretty good at that. Every scientist and remotely smart person in the room began to panic and run, looking for an escape.

"Kill me," Darren formed his hands into his claws, "give it your best shot, assholes".

The Blackwatch commander pulled a shock baton, "Open fire!" The troops began emptying their clips in the mutant, who shrugged off the weak bullets. His first move was about to be the commander, but noticed the shock baton.

He knew what kind of damage that would do to him. For some reason the virus in him absolutely hated electricity. He leaped and did a backflip over the commander and began hacking and slashing his way through the other Blackwatch guards. He covered the floor and walls with blood, and began to take off through the halls.

The teen was leaving a trail of the chambers liquid behind him as his body dripped whatever fluid was in that rejuvenation tank. As he ran through the long white hallways of whatever military institution he was in, he began to follow the guidelines of the scientists' memory he acquired of a reliable exit. He was then brought to a stop as all the lights in the hallway turned red, thus turning the halls the same color. A loud 'whirring' alarm began to sound through the building as an animatronic voice came through the intercom, "RED ALERT, RED ALERT, APOLLO IS LOOSE IN THE BUILDING, I REPEAT, APOLLO IS LOOSE IN THE BUILDING, ALL SOLDIERS TAKE CAUTION AS THE TARGET IS EXTREMELY DANGEROUS!" The sound of multiple footsteps echoing through the halls caught the teen's attention.

"Oh great, what now?" He thought in angst. He wasn't truly scared, but he didn't think he had the mass to throw down with the military again, even if he did consume that scientist. Oh well, he better just make sure he can eat as many of them as he can before he gets out of there.

A troop of about twelve Blackwatch officers rounded a corner and began to open fire at the teenager who just charged straight into the gunfire, the bullets passing right through him, as he healed almost instantly. The virus pounced on the first blackwatch officer he saw and clawed him in two in one swift motion. "You idiots need to invest in stronger guns." The teen said matter of factly. Not that it mattered. He swung his arms in a wide arc around him, cutting five more soldiers to pieces. Maverick then turned his arm into his whipfist and shot it into another officer, the officer looked down to see the tentacle blade sticking into his stomach, and screamed as the kid swung the whip into an arc that horizontally hacked his remaining comrades in half, throwing him into the walls at each side of the hall. Knowing he needed more mass, the hybrid brought the poor man in to be consumed. The man's body was broken down and fed to the virus. Darren clutched his head as he viewed the man's memories.

"Commander, what's the point of sending this little freak to Japan anyways? Why don't we just waste the fucker right here in New York? One less runner to deal with." The soldier whose name was apparently Gordon Lewis, questioned the man whom, Darren ran into earlier, Tyler Byron.

Unlike the way he yelled at the scientist earlier, this Byron man seemed to have a certain level of respect for his men, "For one thing, the Military is still scrubbing the city from the first outbreak. We don't need the other runner around to risk the start of an all new one. Besides that, Mercer and the kid killed dozens of Gentek scientists and research members. Understand those two cost the military billions in war funds. Hell, the government's been having talk of shutting Gentek and Blackwatch down completely. To ensure we get some form of insurance after all of this, we'll need the Japanese branch of Genteks help in dealing with this runner."

"Yes sir." Lewis replied.

Darren was then pulled back into the real world. So he was in a BlackWatch base in Kyoto Japan. Ok. This was convenient, but Mercer left New York and the military had no tabs on where he was. What was left for him now? The human him's parents were here in Japan last time he checked, but that was over four months ago. Their home in New York was destroyed, his siblings were gone, and there was no telling where his parents were.

Even if he found them, how could he tell them his sisters were dead? How could he live with them… like this?

There was nothing left for him.

All he could do was move on, and focus on somehow finding Mercer later.

He let his body ripple apart in a flurry of tentacles as he shifted into the form of a blackwatch soldier, and exited the building. With little trouble getting past other officers on the way out.

As soon as he exited the building and moved to leave the bases grounds, he saw an awfully familiar looking machine hover near him. It was like an oddly shaped frisbee with a propellor and yellow lights in its center. As it hovered over him... it turned red, eliciting an awful sounding buzzing noise. "Uh-Oh!" The teen let out before he felt a needle get launched into his back.

A syringe.

A horrible burning sensation pulsed through his body from whatever it was filled with getting injected into him. He pulled the syringe dart out of his back and saw that it was filled with a low concentration of Blood-Tox, a weaponized cancer meant to put infected down like dogs. It caused him to drop his disguise as a BlackWatch soldier, leaving him in all his naked glory outside the bases grounds.

The teen turned to see from at least six miles out, two men in a lookout post, one with an altered sniping rifle. "Fucking Bastards!" Darren growled through pained, gritted teeth. The virus took off with all his strength into the nearby woods, and into the darkness of the night.

From inside the lookout tower, the BlackWatch Captain Tyler Byron watched furiously as the runner escaped into the night. "Son of a BITCH!" He roared. He took off his mask and threw it out the tower. This revealed a man who had to be in his mid thirties, with blond hair in a mullet cut. The man had green eyes, with three scars running across his cheeks, leaving patches of his stubble bald.

"Forgive me captain. I thought the first shot would have put him down." The sniper said apologetically to his superior.

The Captain knew it wasn't the rookies fault, "Don't worry about it, I blame the fuckin nerd scientists for not producing a stronger dosage. The one Cross used on Zeus made it almost powerless, permanently. The one we used on Apollo will wear off before the night ends."

"Damn." The sniper said.

"Let's get a search team out in those woods. Maybe we got lucky."

X

It had been almost two hours since Darren Maverick escaped the BlackWatch base. He had been dead sprinting his ass off non-stop since then. The energy he was using was starting to feed into his biomass. The weaponized cancer Blackwatch infected him with began to feel worse. He grit his teeth as he felt the burning begin to intensify. But he had to suck it up. He began walking down what he realised was empty country road, which made him feel lucky because drivers passing by would probably begin to question why a nude teenager was wandering miles away from the nearest city.

Darren would have just made some new clothes out of his biomass, but he would have to get to know the details of whatever he was about to wear before he made it, that is if he wanted to pass it off as realistic. He kind of wished he was like Mercer, and got to have the clothes he was wearing turned as well when he got infected. But oh well. The viral hybrid saw a sign that gave the mileage to a nearby city.

"Kamakura, Japan, four miles away." He was beginning to feel woozy and knew he had to get somewhere soon. "Better than nowhere"

X

A/N: Thus ends the prologue of my newest fic. This is the first fic I have that will be centered around an OC, so this will be fun. Speaking about my OC how did he come out, was he believable? This story will also pick up next chapter on the first episode of Elfen Lied, and will follow the anime a bit more than it will the manga. Also, if you want to know who my character basically looks like, he looks very similar to Levi from Attack on Titan, if you haven't seen that anime... what? My character basically looks like a taller version of him with a tad bit longer hair.

I'm also thinking about having this be a OC/Lucy pairing fic, what do you guys think about that? Last thing I'm gonna say regarding Prototype, James Heller does not exist in this fic. Unlike a lot of people I actually like his character, but for the sake of my story he won't exist. Well, that's all I have to say regarding this fic, take care!