Blood Sisters

It was 7:27 am and Bernie Johnson was making his rounds in FSDF Pod 3. These mutants made his stomach churn. They are unnatural, an affront against God Bernie often thought. A Southern Baptist from a proud black Mississippi family, CO Johnson knew what a sinner was. Homosexuals, Jews, Liberals, and not the least of all these damned freaks.

CO Johnson was at the cell door of Victor Davos, PXT-336, and saw that he was still in his bed. Bernie grabbed his shock-stick with his large hand and pounded on the cell bars. A buzzing like a fly in a bug zapper was heard along with the ring of the club on the metal bars. “Shower and BREAK-fast time Davos, you know your 'posed to be up and at the bars now, lets go before I have to learn you one!” Bernie's Mississippi drawl did not rouse Victor and the big CO hit the bars harder, the shock-stick sending a charge up and down the metal this time. “Davos, up I said!”. Still he lay there. Bernie growled and shouted over to the CO station in the center of the pod “I need an entry squad over here, cell 12” he looked back over at Davos' still form in the bed. “You've had it now Davos, I am gonna beat your skull in”.

A few minutes later, three guards joined him in heavy gear and they entered the cell. They found Victor Davos unresponsive, no pulse, no breathing. All the guards knew Victor's profile, how he apparently couldn't be killed, but there was nothing about him just being dead like this. “This has gotta be a trick” Bernie said with annoyance, but rules were rules. “All-right, haul his ass to the infirmary, all three of ya go and keep a close eye on 'im”. Bernie cursed under his breath as they quickly shackled Davos and carried him off to the docs. Bernie decided to forget hitting the code blue alarm that would alert the medical staff. I hope he really is dead he thought.

The prison doctors and nurses were sitting at a table in the staff office like they did every morning, yawning through rounds over lousy coffee. The guards came rushing in with the dead man. The staff came to life and did what they were trained to do, CPR, breathing mask, shocking his heart back to life... Eventually they got life signs from Davos, but he remained unresponsive. His EEG showed no brain activity. To all appearances, Victor was in a coma, probably brain dead. The nurses cleaned him up and set him up on life support. Davos had no known next of kin to contact, no known lawyer either since he always represented himself. So he would have to lay there while an outside medical board were consulted to make his end-of-life decisions. Perhaps The Dead Man is really dead this time they thought. Inside his head, Davos Muerte smiled.

Victor waited three days feigning his vegetative state. He willed himself not to move, not to breathe, to barely even think. He would only get to pull this trick once, so it had to work. His nose started to itch, his muscles cramped up in protest from being held still for hours on end. Victor had to suppress the gag reflex from the tube down his throat, which also hurt like a son-of-a-bitch.

The droning, repetitive, beeping of the heart monitor was like Chinese water torture to his ears. The taste in his throat was like wet hay and the smell was worse. Best of all, he was being fed through a tube and crapping into a bag. He even started to think being dead, really dead, was better then this; but Victor had a will of iron, and it held.

Davos knew he only had so long before the medical committee decided to pull the plug and his opportunity would be lost. He wasn't sure he could survive being cremated, and if they did an autopsy... well, he didn't think he could lay still for that either.

Victor's patience eventually paid off. On the third night of his self-induced coma, the weary CO on overtime decided to take a break and left him unattended. Victor knew where the cameras in the infirmary were. He also knew this was an older part of the prison overdue for renovation, not as secure as the rest of Shay's Mountain.

Disentangling himself from his life-support and quickly disabling the medical alarm, Victor carefully picked his way across the room, keeping out of the camera's view, palming some improvised tools along the way. The Dead Man thought If they are sampling my blood, they should be sampling the other inmates as well... here's hoping. Davos awkwardly picked the lock to the med-lab with two paperclips, cursing under his breath for how long it was taking him. Finally it clicked open and he crept inside. As he suspected, there was no camera in the lab. Victor moved over to the cold storage unit. Inside he found his treasure; dozens of blood samples in neat little dark red rows of Pyrex.

Victor knew exactly which one he was looking for... and was grateful that someone was meticulous enough to put the vials in alphabetical order. He pulled out the 'M' rack, grabbed a vial and returned to his bed as quick as caution allowed. With a shark smile The Dead Man quickly poured half of the blood into the guards coffee thermos, then steeling himself he drank the rest of the foul tasting stuff himself.

With a flurry of johnnie ass-crack and stale white sheets Victor did his best to appear comatose and back on the life-support. He doubted the guard would notice the disabled alarms and the fact that the tubes were no longer going down his throat. Fortunately the oxygen mask made that part easier. The Dead Man closed his eyes and waited.

Several minutes passed before the guard returned with doughnuts from the break room. Just as planned he warmed up his coffee, drinking in Victor's key to freedom. The minutes ticked by until Victor finally felt the presence in his head he had been waiting for. “Hello Michaela” Davos thought. He sensed a moment of surprise from her strange mind. “Who is this?!” Michaela demanded telepathically. “I am the person that is going to get us out of here, but only if you can swallow that pride of yours and do what I say” Victor could feel her annoyance heating up his brain.

“Speak” the vampiress thought. Davos decided not to correct her and said “I know your abilities Michaela and...” the vampire grabbed his mind in a telepathic grip “how do you know me little man?!”. Cringing, the dead man thought back “I am just that good, I make it my business to know, now lay off and listen”. He wondered at the power the vampire derived from her mix of blood and bio-mutant energy. Michaela relaxed her hold “continue”. “Listen” Davos continued. “In a few minutes your going to feel contact with the brain of a CO who I have poisoned with your blood. Use the control you then gain over him to assist me in getting to you and getting you out of your cell. Once I am there I will tell you the rest of the plan”. Michaela sneered into his mind and thought “why don't I just take control of you now, rip what I need to know from your head and leave you a drooling idiot on the floor?”. Victor smiled “I am older then even you, my dear blue lady, and I know some tricks of my own. Don't underestimate my will. You might be able to take control of me enough physically to force me to be your puppet, but taking control of my thoughts will be considerably more difficult. I doubt we have time for that, now just do as I say and we will both be out of here in minutes”. Michaela growled low “fine”.

It took longer for the guard to succumb then expected, the coffee and the doughnut must have slowed things down. Eventually the vampire had him. The Dead Man and the puppet guard made their way to Michaela's cell, disabled the female guards at the door and let themselves in.

Michaela had her puppet free her from behind the security wall and she stepped menacingly towards Victor. He spoke quickly as he backed away from her “Okay listen doll, I know that you have no special movement abilities, I mean you can run faster then a mundane I am sure, but not fast enough to run away from D-Day's Special Marshal team and the US Army that will be right on our heels. and I sure as hell can't.”

Michaela telepathically grabbed Victor's brain and held him still, coming so close to him that he could practically feel her. His body started screaming in response in both terror and insatiable desire. Victor panted “We just have to get to one other cell and we can get out of here... just think of it my murderous friend... my brains, and... your... well, all the things you can do, we can get out of here, get revenge on whoever you want, help each other... we wont get captured again I swear...”

Victor was starting to lose control, the seductive quality of the vampiress, her blood raging in his veins, her supernatural beauty so close to him, he started to sweat. He managed to force out “Listen, please lady, don't make me beg... I have a plan, I know who captured you and locked you up in here... I know how to kill her...” Michaela released him and Davos dropped to the floor. Michaela narrowed her ruby eyes at the dead man “You know how she can be killed?” Victor nodded.

“Fine then Dead Man we have an agreement, betray me at your peril. I know about you as well. I may not be able to kill you, but I can still drink all the blood from your body that I want and you wont die.” Her voice was full of icy menace. “If you don't want to spend eternity in my wine cellar, you had better be able to do as you say”. Victor suppressed a chill, wiped his brow and got to his feet. Before he could collect himself Michaela grew claws and killed all three of the guards, dragging the dead women into the room then taking a few seconds to fill up on the blood of the male guard... Michaela scraped her tongue under her fangs and licked his blood from her dripping lips, her eyes closed and mouth open in bone-chilling ecstasy. The vampiress gasped in delight, then her eyes snapped over at Victor filled with lust from the kill. The Dead Man was revolted at his desire.

“Dallas” was the name stitched on the dead guard's uniform. Victor recognized the man, CO Mike Dallas. Now he was a bloody corpse on the ground, a waterfall from his stained red neck soaking his green uniform black. The brutal display made The Dead Man wince, he was usually not around when the violence from his plans occurred. He frowned, thinking well these people knew the risk when they started cashing their paychecks. Even so, he sighed at the vampire “We might have needed one of them alive.” Michaela just looked at him scornfully, wiping the last of Mike's blood from her face with the back of her cold blue hand. Victor closed his eyes and shook his head. There was nothing to do but let it go. Davos poked his hawkish face out the door to check the hall, then spoke over his shoulder at the vampire “We haven't got much time left before all this is discovered. We need to free one more person to get us out of here Michaela; we need to get to The Silhouette”.

Silhouette was one of the younger generation of New Humans, it had become apparent over time that the mutations that were creating them were getting more powerful. It was only 30 years ago or so that the first Omega mutations were born. That was when the government started to catalog the powers of the New Humans, giving them a classification such as Alpha's, Beta's, Gamma's, Omega's etc. Then congress passed the National Security Registration Act (NSRA), which was promptly signed into law. The NSRA required that all 'powered, hyper-normal or mutated' individuals register with the government and provide a tissue sample. This was the first legislation of its kind, and many other nations followed with similar laws.

These suspensions of civil liberties were pushed through on a wave of public fear about the increasingly powerful New Humans and a creative interpretation of the National Security Act of 1947 which led to an expanded role of the DOD and the NSA in domestic security where mutated people were involved. Many New Humans resisted and have refused to comply with the NSRA, which has remained an issue to this day.

An FBI Special Operations office investigates New Human activity, the DOD and NSA enforce national NSRA related policies, providing security and detainment facilities, such as Ft. Miles. The US Special Marshal team (USSM) tracks down convicted New Humans at large, and other needs relating to any mutated person that is involved with the criminal justice system or a violation of the NSRA.

Many New-Hums are considered to have betrayed their own community by cooperating with this nonsense. Mutated humans with enhanced intelligence have created new technologies, such as the robotics genius who was known as The Brigadier, Paul Desnoyers, who became the new D-Day. Paul was given command over the Special Marshals. An Air Force major and New Human known as Freedom Falcon created flying battle-suits for a special unit of Blue Berets. A unknown, but likely mutated, person behind the M-Tech corporation has developed many advanced technologies, such as the lightweight, but tough, bullet-resistant beta-cloth. M-Tech provides equipment to registered New Humans, and many non-military law enforcement agencies to help them manage criminal hyper-normal activity.

The Silhouette has amazing powers related to a mysterious, previously unknown dimension that is known colloquially as the Shadow Dimension, the Shadow World or simply Shadow. Victor reads anything and everything. He recently read an article about some fringe String Theorists that have claimed the discovery of this shadow dimension could prove their take on the Quantum Theory of Gravity, which only works mathematically with more then three dimensions. Other physicists have proposed so-called dark matter or dark energy theories in relation to this previously unknown aspect of space-time. In any case, The Silhouette can jump in and out of shadows, manipulate shadows, even make them solid. Most importantly for Victor and Michaela, The Midnight Mistress could transport others to and from this Shadow Dimension with her.

Michaela left a train of dead guards, but two fugitive's luck held until they got to The Silhouettes cell. The Dark Lady, like Michaela, was in a special room. It was lit with wrap-around low frequency red LED lights that prevented any shadows from being cast in the room. The Silhouette had the slender body of a dancer, dark gray skin and straight, impossibly black chin length hair. Her luminous eyes glowed like soft moonlight without pupil or iris. Victor took a moment to look her over, liking her shape. He hit the intercom as Silhouette walked over to the thick polarized glass containing her. Davos said “We need you to get us out of here Silhouette, I'll let you out if you get us out.” Silhouette did not even need to think about it. “You got it Muerte, open this wall and I will do the rest.” Davos hit the release switch just as the general prison alarm started to sound. He smiled to himself “Not a moment to soon.” The Silhouette stepped into the hallway just as the federal prison's anesthetic gas started venting into the air. The lights in the hallway clicked off, a special precaution for this prisoner. Victor turned on the flashlight he had obtained from a fallen guard. That made shadow enough. Silhouette reached out to them and The Terrible Trio slipped away into the darkness, and freedom.