Disclaimer: I do not own Infinite Stratos or [Prototype].

This Fanfic DOES NOT disregard [Prototype 2]. It gives an explanation of how Alex survived and perhaps recharacterizes him in such a way that makes him closer to his [Prototype] persona, but the Second Outbreak still happened in this fanfic.

Note: This Fanfic assumes the first outbreak happened in 2009 (since that is when [Prototype] was released) and the second happened in 2010 (since the second is supposed to occur 14 months after the first).

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Prologue: Awake

"He is awake!"

A flurry of lights and sounds assault the eyes of one Dan Gotanda. Naturally, he is confused… more so than usual.

"What happened…?" He thought. Taking a good look at his surroundings, he found himself surrounded by people in lab coats, and the familiar faces of his family members.

The people in lab coats were astonished, while his family members were in tears.

This only served to confuse him even more. Did he just get resurrected or something?

"What happened…?" He asked himself again, trying to will himself to remember just what caused everyone to look at him in such a strange way.

Trying to get up, he finds himself gently pushed back down by a corpselike person. He's also wearing a lab coat. Dan did not notice this person's presence before. He must have arrived recently.

"Don't get up, you need to rest," said the corpselike person.

Dan was about to ask the person what happened to him before the person continued.

"You're in the hospital, kid. You got multiple stabs at your abdomen and one stab at your lungs defending your sister here from would-be rapists. If it worries you, she escaped safely," the corpselike man explained, as if reading his mind. "She called the police after she escaped, and they found you bloodied and dying," he continued.

"I'm sorry, but who are you?" Dan asked the corpselike man in the most polite manner he can.

"This is the person who saved your life!" said one very enthusiastic man. Dan immediately deduced that this man is a doctor, since he's in a hospital.

"His name is Doctor Mercer! God, he's a miracle worker!" the man continued. Dan now realizes that this enthusiastic man is no other than the person who yelled "He is awake!" the first time he opened his eyes.

Dan isn't a genius, but even HE knows that you simply CAN'T survive disembowelment AND a puncture in the lung, ESPECIALLY if not treated immediately. Before he had a chance to ask, however, a blob with red hair tackle-hugged him.

"I'm sorry Onee-san! I won't be mean to you again!" cries the red blob. Dan finally notices that the red blob is none other than his sister, Ran Gotanda. She is in tears. Her, and all of his family members; His mom, his dad, hell, even his grandpa.

"Interesting," Dan mused, "I never remembered Ran crying for me even once."

Dan turns his head towards that of Doctor Mercer's. He now notices aside from his corpselike complexion, he has brown hair and blue eyes.

"Thank you, Doctor Mercer," said Dan gratefully. He did save his life, after all.

"No problem kid," replies the Doctor.

A sudden urge assaulted Dan. The urge to move… to run… to scale walls… to do things he knows he can't do even when he's healthy. And yet the urge seems instinctual…

"When can I be discharged, doc?" asks Dan. The urge is overpowering him. He needs to get out of this confined space, fast.

"In a week or so," replies Doctor Mercer. Dan immediately cringes at the thought of being trapped in a small room for an entire week.

"Not yet," soothes a voice in his head, calming his desires to get out of the place, "Soon, perhaps tonight, but not yet."

Dan notes that the voice seems eerily reminiscent to that of Doctor Mercer's.

The Doctor nods to him, as if confirming that the voice indeed is his.

"Why?" asked a hooded figure bound on a wheelchair in a confused tone.

"A lot of reasons," replied Alex Mercer.

"You used Blacklight to save him. Why did you try so hard? I know his genes are compatible, but his background is simply unsuitable for any of your goals," pressed the hooded figure.

"I know, I know," replied Alex Mercer, voice sounding tired. Of course, Mercer is Blacklight incarnate, he does not tire at all, but even then human mannerisms seem to be maintained entirely out of habit for him.

"Then why?" asked the hooded figure.

"He has a sister," Alex murmured, answering the question as if it pained him.

"Ah," said the hooded figure, as if that explained everything to him, "To be honest with you, I thought that you wouldn't save him because he has a sister, not the other way around. After all, Dana did betray you…"

"That was a long time ago," Alex replied, "Plus, she had a very good reason for doing so. Not to mention I was a jackass at the time."

"Ah yes, the second outbreak," said the hooded figure, "I still don't understand why you sent a biomass replica to fight him and lose, instead of just killing him with your capabilities."

Alex sighed.

"I wanted to create a perfect world for Dana. I did it in order to protect her, to make her happy. When I found out she betrayed me… well… I simply lost the drive to do it, I guess. Besides, I won't win if I face Heller at that time."

"And why is that?"

"Heller had a family to protect and revenge to exact. I had… nothing. I disappointed the only family I cared about and I have no goals that I had a personal stake in. I knew he was going to win… because I won against Greene and Blackwatch before using the exact same formula; Dana to protect and Gentek to exact my revenge on. That is why I sent a biomass replica with memories of the vault's location. Because I knew I was going to lose."

"Did you regret that?"

"Trying to conquer the world? Yeah I did."

"No. Did you regret sending that Biomass replica instead of simply throwing the fight? Did you regret deciding to live with the burden of your sins instead of dying for them?"

Alex paused, thinking of a suitable reply.

"No, I did not," Alex finally replied, "I never liked taking the easy way out anyhow."

A chuckle from the hooded figure is heard.

"So, what's next? What are you going to do with the boy?"

"Well… I'll train him, I guess. I don't think he'll abuse those powers. He has a family after all. If he does well enough, maybe I'll recruit him to Blacklight, if he so desires."

Another pause, this time from the hooded figure, occurred. The hooded figure then, the first time in this conversation, turned his head from staring of the space beyond the railing of the rooftops and onto the blue eyes of Alex Mercer.

"You're actually giving him a choice in the matter?" asked the hooded figure incredulously, staring at Alex as if he just consumed someone.

"Aren't I allowed?"

It is 8'o clock at night.

His family left already, after accompanying him for ten hours straight. They had a business to run after all. Dan understood that.

Besides, he needs their absence right now. He needs to escape this hospital and take a jog or something. "I'm sure I can go out, take a jog, and return without getting caught," he thought.

"Not yet," said the voice of Doctor Mercer, "Too many people still walking around, you'll get caught."

So he waited.

…

Three hours later, Doctor Mercer enters his darkened room. The lights weren't on.

"We're going out. You need a change of clothes, preferably those for jogging," Doctor Mercer said.

"So I wasn't hallucinating about the voice… he can actually read my mind," Dan thought. He really would have been surprised, if not the fact that this world has physics defying exoskeletons powered by infinite power sources. Mind reading is tame compared to that.

"Change your clothes. We can talk later," grunted Doctor Mercer, as if his thoughts annoyed him.

"But I don't have a change of clothes," thought Dan. Before he could voice his thoughts, however, Mercer interrupted him.

"Imagine yourself wearing the clothes you had when you got stabbed," instructed Doctor Mercer. Dan did what he was told, shutting his eyes to focus. Something is telling him that the Doctor isn't crazy and that something is bound to happen.

When he opened his eyes, he's wearing his clothes when he got stabbed under the hospital gown.

"What the fuck?" he thought.

"Dismiss those clothes. This time, do not close your eyes."

Dan did what he was told. He was, quite frankly, freaked out when his clothes suddenly became black-red worm like structures and entered his skin.

"What the fuck!" he said, this time not bothering to hide his thoughts. If his suspicions are correct, the Doctor could read his mind anyway. Thus, it simply does not make any sense to hide his astonishment.

"It does. What if someone heard that?" Mercer suddenly opined, confirming once and for all that he can indeed read Dan's mind.

"Oh…" replied Dan, his mind still trying to comprehend what the hell is going on.

"Curious? Then summon your clothes, take of that hospital gown and meet me at the rooftops. I'll explain there."

When Alex Mercer left for the rooftops, Dan was only a few steps behind him, already in his clothes and out of his hospital gown.

"So, Dan Gotanda, correct? My name is Alex Mercer. Call me Alex, I hate formalities," Alex started when they arrived at the rooftops.

"Alright, Alex-san" replies Dan.

"I'll explain what's going on here. But first, let's take a jog."

Alex vaulted over the rooftop railing and fell to the ground with a thud. Dan simply stood there, staring and wondering how in the world he survived a five story fall.

"Come on, jump. Surviving falls are just the tip of the iceberg of what you can do now."

Dan hesitated, but he believes he could trust Alex. He jumped while shutting his eyes.

Another thump.

Dan opened his eyes. He flexed his fingers and stretched his legs, checking what bone he broke. He found out he broke none, although instinctually he knew he wouldn't be hurt.

Alex motioned Dan to follow him. Alex broke into a run, faster than what normal humans could possibly run at, and Dan followed. He was mildly surprised that he could keep up, but seeing that he survived a five story drop, he was kind of expecting it.

What he did not expect was, however, when Alex ran up an eight story building. Dan's rational mind tried to stop himself from crashing to the wall, but his instincts screamed to keep on running, as if he's made for this. Dan obeyed his instincts.

He was freaked out when he ran up the building vertically, just like what Alex Mercer had done.

Scaling the building, he reached the rooftop. Dan expected Alex to stop and give him an explanation at this point. Alex however, simply continued sprinting and jumped to another building.

"What the fuck?" grunted Dan. He can't seriously be expecting him to be able to leap that far a distance, right?

"No harm done with trying," thought Dan. He is, after all, capable of surviving lethal falls without a single scratch. There is not point for him to worry about plummeting down to the Earth. He is worried, however, on whether or not he could keep up with Alex.

Gathering all his strength at his legs, Dan jumped.

The wind rushing past his ears was enough indication that he really did jump freakishly high.

He did not quite jump as high or as long as Alex, though. Alex cleared the jump and landed on the target 16 story building. Dan smashed onto the 12th floor. "Thank God I crashed onto a wall and not a window," he thought. Dan immediately shifted his position before gravity does its work, and ran up the rest of the building.

After leaping building to building, they finally arrived at the outskirts of a forest. Alex sprinted into it, Dan following him closely behind.

After they were deep enough into the forest, Alex stopped. Turning around and facing Dan, Alex grinned.

"Welcome, Kid, to the top of the food chain."

Notes:

Blacklight is an organization Alex made for purposes unknown. It's named after (obviously) the Blacklight virus.

Alex has his own hivemind now, used to manage the local and worldwide communication of his Prototype agents. It acts like an internet chat service, really, just using thoughts instead of typed words.

The wheelchair-bound hooded figure is an OC. He's not going to appear much in this story.

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