Blood Sisters

Special Marshal Paul Desnoyers, better known to the world as the hero D-Day. Paul was the second man to hold that honor, the first being the retired hero Francis Flemming. Marshal Desnoyers was awakened just after 1 AM and rushed down to his office. An average sized man with hazel eyes and sandy brown hair, there was nothing remarkable that one would notice about Paul by looking at him. You could not tell that he was one of the leading experts in the world in Robotics, and that he had the peculiar New Human power to shrink himself down to about six inches tall. That was it, smart and small, that was Paul.

What most of the world also did not know that the man in the new D-Day battlearmor was not, in fact, in the armor so much as he was piloting the armor. There were several D-Day armor sets throughout the United States, one in France and one in Japan. Paul could remotely pilot any of them as well as he could pilot his master suit; which to the outside observer was only slightly larger then a man. To 6” tall Paul it was a massive armored anthropomorphic vehicle. Paul piloted the D-Day unit while he was the size of an action figure from the cockpit in its head. He often joked that the D-Day toys they sold should be labeled “Actual Size”.

Marshal Desnoyers felt acid sick spread through him as he watched the footage from the security cameras. Michaela had carved a path of blood from her cell to The Silhouette's, seven guards in all, starting with CO Michael Dallas. “Damn Dallas, you poor soul” Paul muttered. When Mike Dallas left The Dead Man unattended he had sown the seeds for his own death.

Paul reviewed the gruesome recording again. Dallas, Jane Sardis and Martha Carter-Brown, the two women that were on duty outside Michaela's cell at the time. Then four more men killed as the fugitives encountered them: Lt. Pappy Grange, the shift commander, Douglas Brown, George Zuckerberg, Joe Ballard. Michaela had killed them all, before Davos could even catch up to the vampire. The Dead Man took the time to look at each man that fell, as if keeping track of the cost in lives of his freedom. Paul had never understood Victor Davos. Paul felt rage start to fester.

The footage suddenly switched to night-vision when the lights went out in the block outside The Silhouette's cell. Mere seconds later, the beam of a flashlight, then nothing but darkness.

Paul was disgusted. He snapped the screen off and thought of the dead officers. The only one he knew well was Pappy Grange. Everyone knew Old Pappy. He had been at Shay's since it opened. Pappy was just one of those guys that held the place together, everyone loved the guy. Now he was dead. Murdered for having the shit luck to be walking down the wrong hallway into a nightmare.

Paul's sigh whistled sharp through his clenched teeth. He and his team were in for some very long days and nights, damn Davos to hell. Picking up the phone, D-Day punched in the code that would summon his special marshals to the office. Then he sat down to start placing the seven calls he now had to make, starting with Mike Dallas' brother, Mark.

***

Victor Davos woke with a deep breath. He was on a dusty bed in a dark motel room somewhere.

His head was throbbing and he groaned. Waking up after you've been dead for a while was always unpleasant. Though, he thought he held on this time, he was just unconscious.

The Shadow Dimension, as you might imagine, has no air. This was not a problem for Silhouette, who was born adapted to both our world and to Shadow. Nor was it a problem for Michaela, who was apparently sustained by the power of her stolen blood alone. Victor however, needed air, and quickly began to suffocate. This was a death he had experienced before, a painful way to go.

The Dead Man played back what he could remember from the experience before he lost consciousness. Shadow was not a vacuum, it felt like being submerged in some viscous liquid darkness. There was a sense of gravity, the same as on Earth, which in retrospect Victor thought very interesting.

He could not speak in the airless Shadow Dimension, obviously, but Victor remembered Michaela speaking into his mind through her blood, still poisoning him. The Silhouette seemed able to manipulate shadow so she could speak, hear and be heard. The vampire had laughed as she realized Davos was struggling to breathe in vain. “Goodbye, Dead Man have a nice sleep” she mocked into his brain. Victor decided right then that someday he would see that creature destroyed. He hated her to the core.

The Silhouette walked over to Victor as he sat up on the cheap motel bed. The droning sound-waves from traffic filled the room like a steel and rubber tide, shaking occasionally as tractor-trailers flew by on the highway. The lights were off in the room, and Victor could only see from what filtered from outside and the soft glow of Silhouette's eyes. “Feeling better Muerte?” The Dark Lady asked. Davos held his head, still throbbing. “Yeah, I will be fine. Where are we, and where is that damn vampire?” The Silhouette smirked, “We stepped out into this motel room about... I don't know, maybe 40 miles away from Shay's Mountain, I have not actually left the room yet. You were in pain, and dying, so I jumped out of the first shadow I could find that... no one could see” she waved a hand towards the dark hall by the bathroom. Victor noticed for the first time that The Silhouette had a pleasant Latina accent, he grunted in offhand approval. Davos asked again “and where is Michaela?”. Silhouette snorted with disdain “that puto left as soon as we stepped through, saying she had someone to see before...” Victor stood up too fast and swayed on his feet. He growled “Damn her frozen hide! We are still too close to the prison, and flea bag motels like this are the first place they are going to look!” The Dead Man sat back down on the bed before he fell down, waving a puff of dust from before his face. The Midnight Mistress shrugged “Claro que sí, that's what I told her. If she isn't back and the Marshals come, we'll jump back to Shadow, and al infierno con ella.” Davos nodded and said darkly “Nah, I think she'd like it there.”

***

Mark Dallas gripped the phone angrily as he listened to what Marshal Desnoyer was telling him. His twin brother Mike, dead. Murdered by an escaped New-Hum whore. Mark barely heard what the Marshal was telling him... “we will not rest”... “we are so sorry for your loss”... “he will get justice”... Mark just stammered some words, not sure what. Then he slammed the phone down. Mike was the only one that knew Mark's secret. They were twins, yes, but Mark was the one with powers. In order to protect his normal twin brother, they both decided that they would keep Mark's abilities a secret. Well, hell, that didn't matter anymore did it? “Were gonna get justice all-right, Marshal” Mark said bitterly into the air.

When he was 17, Mark lost his temper when his drunk-ass worthless Father hit his Mother so hard that blood from her mouth splattered his face. He loved his Momma. He loved the West Texas home where they lived. He lost his temper, then he lost that world. The fire burst uncontrolled from Marks body, burning his childhood home down in scant minutes. His brother Mike was outside doing chores. His Father was blown outside the house, horribly burned, scarred for life. His Mother died in ashes at his feet.

He had not spoken to his father since that day. Mark never forgot what he did to his momma. She screamed and died in his dreams all the years from that hellish night, his shame and fear keeping his temper in check ever since. Until now. For the second time Mark Dallas burned down his house, this one in a quiet suburb of Houston. A flaming comet of grief and rage streaked up into the night sky. Wildfire was born.

***

At her apartment near Shay's Mountain, Dr. Reed had been enjoying her day off. She was sitting in her flannel pajamas and comfy slippers, drinking her tea and enjoying a few ginger snaps as she watched movies into the evening. After the the last one ended she drowsily clicked through the channels, not wanting to go to bed where she would just sleep alone again. Sarah settled on the History Channel, which was running some show on ancient Greece. Soon she was dozing on her couch.

***

Paul finished the last call and rubbed his face in his hands, trying to shake off all the grief and anger the victim's families had all just started to go through. He took a deep breath then began preparing the briefing for his team. He could see on his security screen that several of them were already arriving.

The first was Captain Lisa Shaw, code name Peregrine, in her metallic blue flightarmor. She was the protege of the former Liberty Brigade leader Freedom Falcon, and helped develop the MK-X flightarmor for the Blue Berets. She is a short spunky gal with mousy brown hair and brown eyes, a talented engineer and Air Force reserve officer on loan to the team. She had no New Human ability that D-Day knew of, yet here she was, in her custom flightarmor, ready to rock. Paul would never admit it, but as a fellow scientist and powered-armor user, Peregrine was his favorite.

Lisa was talking to Jack Steele, code name Broadsword. Jack could absorb metal into his body, then shape it in a variety of ways. The more he absorbed, the denser he got as more mass was forced into the same sized body. He broke a lot of chairs. Jack can cover his body in metal armor, and he sometimes grew a blade or other weapon from his arm when he fights, thus his code name. Jack's body is stronger and tougher then normal so it can contain and support the metal he absorbs.

At the moment he was making Lisa some silver barrettes, which she promptly used to pin down her hair before putting her flight helmet back on. That was the other thing about Jack, he could absorb different kinds of metal, combine them and shape them in whatever way he chose. He was also quite a ladies man, handsome and easy going with light brown hair and large gray eyes. Lisa is not the first woman he made a piece of jewelry for with his bare hands. He had a thing for Captain Shaw, but so far she had resisted his advances. A situation handsome Jack was unaccustomed to.

The next marshal to arrive is Winter Ashton, code name North Star. Winter is Allison Ashton's kid sister. She, like many New-Hum siblings, were not born with any special abilities. Several years back, a criminal known as Splicer had abducted the younger sister of Miss Liberty, Earth's mightiest hero. Usually not a smart move.

Splicer had been dealing in custom mutations. He had found a way to make normal people, into New-Hums. The catch was, while he was mutating his lab rats, he also made them vulnerable to his suggestions. His puppet mutations would then commit a variety of crimes, until they had payed him off, which never occurred. Even worse, Splicer had implanted an explosive charge at the base of their skulls that he could detonate remotely if they tried to cross him or got caught, literally blowing their heads off. Paul had seen the pictures, it really did.

Long story short, Liberty Brigade, who among others included Miss Liberty and Freedom Falcon at the time, were after Splicer, and getting close. Splicer got hold of Winter, turning her into a criminal that went by the name Frostbite, a New-Hum with the ability to control temperature, absorb and project water. She could only take energy from matter to make it colder, and with that ability Winter could create a variety of effects, typically with her absorbed water. Like Broadsword and metal, Winter has learned to absorb a large reserve of water molecules in her body. Unlike Broadsword, her mass did not seem to change from this absorption. This trait was one of many that has puzzled the Metaphysicians about the variations and inconsistencies between New Human mutations. A scientist himself, it made Paul's brain hurt too, where did the mass of all that water go? For that matter, where did his mass go when he shrank, it went somewhere, because he lost an enviable amount of weight...

Eventually Winter was rescued, and the bomb on her skull was removed. But that story is not over, Splicer disappeared without a trace, and has been missing many years now. Not all that surprising Paul supposed, being wanted by Miss Liberty would drive most people into hiding.

Winter Ashton once had the same blonde hair and sun-kissed skin of her older sister. Her transformation into Frostbite also caused a change in her appearance. She now had platinum white hair, the fairest alabaster skin you have ever seen and sapphire blue eyes that could freeze any man in their tracks. Paul would never say it aloud, but he thinks that kid sister got the looks while big sister got the super-strength. As nice looking as Ally Ashton was, her little sister was movie-star gorgeous.

***

The night that would change Sarah's life forever started with breaking glass. Sarah shot up awake, spilling her cold tea all over the floor where her mug bounced on the carpet. The young doctor stood in mute horror, hearing the sound of crunching glass below bare blue feet as Michaela stalked slowly into the living room towards Sarah. The vampire's ruby eyes shone with wicked delight as her fanged maw opened in a serpent hiss at her prey.

***

Victor Davos returned to the hotel room with a plastic bag from the pharmacy down the street. He started a well-honed routine of disguising himself, as he has done more times then he could count over the years. “Not my proudest moment, sneaking into a CVS and shoplifting some cosmetics, but we do what me must” he sneered at himself in the mirror as he started darkening his skin.

He glanced at the exotic woman behind him, suppressing a surge of attraction. “Okay, shadow lady. We can't know for sure if the man at the desk in the lobby has seen or heard anything that could tip off the Marshals. I am going to go club him, and take his place at the desk. I will be able to pass for him well enough. Do what you can to hide the traces of us from this room, then go find a dark corner to hide in with him where you can see me. When the Marshals stop by to check out this motel I'll send them on their way, then we can rest easy for a few hours till her majesty the blood queen gets back.”

The Dead Man gave Silhouette a sly look and she smirked back at him. “I'll clean out the register and the safe, then we will stuff the manager in a closet. He will wake up thinking he was just a victim of a stupid robbery, the morning shift will find him all trussed up. This should be cake, there is no security in the lobby, just outside. When the Marshals do a second sweep, the robbery will make them look closer at this place, but we should be long gone by then.”

Silhouette just stared at the back of Davos' head “Why don't we just leave Muerte, if D-Day's team are the ones...” Victor interrupted her “D-Day and his crew are not going to be the ones checking the motels, that's what he has regular Marshals for.” The Dark Lady still stewed “OK, fine, but I still don't understand why we don't just ditch the vamp.” Victor glanced back at her “Because, we need her, my little blackbird.” Silhouette gave him half a grin at that, he winked then kept going “Michaela is the one they really want, and we're gonna let them have her once we're done with the plan.” The Midnight Mistress tapped her foot impatiently “What plan Muerte? No one has told me of any plan!” Victor gave her a grim look. “Michaela wants to kill Miss Liberty, and we are going to help her do it.”

***

“It's lunchtime Sarah” Michaela's words hung like an early frost in the air. Freezing Sarah in absolute terror as the vampire walked closer, each step stretching out to forever. Michaela's hand struck out like a viper, viciously grabbing Sarah around the neck and digging in her claws. Pearls of blood trailed down Sarah's skin as the black talons tore deeper into her flesh. The vampiress jerked the good Doctor close, whipping her head forward with a thick snap. Michaela hissed and licked the Sarah's face with her rough cold tongue. Sarah trembled helplessly in her steel grip, whimpering in fear and too scared to cry.

***

The last member of D-Day's Special Marshals to arrive was also the youngest, Todd Scott, code name Titan. The tall good-looking young man had a thick muscled build. He had a bright smile that lit up his dark brown face and a bald head that looked smooth and polished. He was enrolled in the MBA program at Stanford and he graduated from Amherst College. Todd’s family were wealthy, owning vineyards near Modesto California and were successful vintners. Regardless, Todd was a bright kid who studied hard, played hard, and earned his own way. Which was just as well, he had no interest in wine.

As Titan, Todd Scott is very strong, very tough and can grow to more then twice his height, which made him even stronger. He always grumbled about how New-Hum's couldn't play in the NBA, he would have been the best center the Lakers ever had.

Paul looked down at his four Marshals on one of his offices security screens. His attention lingered a moment, watching their smiles, listening to their jokes... they were in a world where Michaela, The Dead Man and The Silhouette were still in jail, where seven guards had not just been brutally murdered. The same seven guards who, knowing Michaela, were just the start of what would almost surely be a bloody killing spree. With a sigh D-Day rose up from his desk and went to tell his team the bad news.

***

Sarah did start to cry as she struggled in vain to pull away from the horrid creature that held her in its claws. “Please... oh God please... Michaela I don't want to die... please!” Sarah tearfully begged, knowing it was hopeless. Michaela laughed, a sound like a shard of glass pulled over the strings of a violin. “I am not going to kill you, at least not yet Doctor. I want you to suffer, suffer badly... and I want to make sure you remember me for what remains of your worthless life.” The Vampire spit thick blood over Sarah's face, causing her to retch against the bony hand crushing her neck.

***

Marshal Desnoyer was only a few minutes into the briefing with his team. By this point they all had looks of anger and resolve chiseled on stony faces. The security footage from the time Victor Davos and CO Dallas left the infirmary to the escape with The Silhouette told most of the story. “The expedited apprehension of such dangerous fugitives, as you all know, is the central reason all of us have jobs here. This will be the first real test of the United States Special Marshal Service, and we must not fail.” The questions began. Jack Steele “OK, so while Davos was off camera, he didn't take much more time then he would have taken to get that vial from the lab. Does anyone not think there was blood in that vial? Where did that come from, and to state the obvious, why the hell isn't there a camera in the lab?” Paul shook his head in resignation “I have no idea Jack, about the camera, I can tell you that my report confirms that was Michaela's blood in the vial.”

“That's where the blood came from” Winter quipped bitterly at Jack, who frowned. “You know damn well I was talking about why such a large sample was just lying around in there.” Winter retorted “Its... a medical lab?” Sarcasm. Jack rolled his eyes. “You're not getting...” Titan broke in “Jack, don't play it that way” he looked over at Paul “we haven't talked about it, Paul, but we've all heard the rumors about the blood sampling.” Paul nodded affirmatively but only said “classified blah blah blah...” Winter shot “Even now they are sticking with that?” Paul sighed “Look I know we're all pretty upset right now, lets focus on one problem at a time here, OK?” Silence.

Todd Scott “Right. so... Dead Man has no history of psi powers” he rewound the infirmary footage “Dallas here is obviously being controlled, likely from Michaela's blood that Dead Man mick'd into his coffee. Did anyone know she could do that?” Winter quipped “Davos did.” Eye rolls all around. “North Star....” Paul began “yeah OK sorry.” Winter crossed arms against her chest and slumped in her chair. “My report does not contain any information about Michaela's blood allowing mind control, but it follows considering...” Heads nodded. Titan again “OK and here.... and here... Davos talking to himself... an egomaniac like him was not going to just allow himself to be taken over, so he must have had time to lay out his play to Michaela, or... yeah.” Jack said “Yeah, so the blood also allows mental communication with Michaela.” “Yuck” Lisa said. “Yup” Jack agreed. Lisa had just been sitting quietly, leaning back in her chair, her eyes closed and her head back. She could have been sleeping, but everyone knew she was listening and thinking. She did that.

Winter started in “Alight, do we have any ideas about where they might have gone, I think its safe to assume Victor is the man in charge here, well for the most part. He is the one with the plan anyway. I am sure there must be more to this then just an escape.” Jack replied “Why wouldn't just escaping be enough, you think they are all together still?” Winter nodded “Yup, I really do.” “You have anything to back that up, or is it just your gut?” North Star just patted her belly. Paul said “We will find out soon enough either way, but I have the feeling that Winter is right.” Titan nodded, Jack considered. Winter parsed her lips and scrunched her shoulders. Lisa's nose twitched.

D-Day took a moment to pour himself another coffee and turned on the sound from the C&C workstation so he could hear the chatter from around the prison and the fort as personnel checked in during their sweep. No one in this room thought for a second that any of the fugitives were still anywhere near the mountain, but it had to be done. Paul typed in a text requesting the regular marshals assigned to him check in. They were the only ones in the field outside the facility at this point. Paul stared at the still on his screen of the three fugitives just before The Silhouette took them into Shadow. “Where the hell did they go” he muttered.

Lisa Shaw sat up with a start, knocking her flight helmet off of the table from where it rested by her elbow. The resulting clang made the room jump. “Hey, Paul” Lisa said urgently “I had coffee with Dr. Sarah Reed earlier today, you know, the Doctor that was handling Michaela?” there was a gathering storm in the silence that hung in the room as Lisa finished her thought. “I mean, this is her weekend off... Sarah is not in the facility...” D-Day cursed and grabbed at his phone. “Get me her number by the time I get an outside line Peregrine!” Lisa had it up on the screen in seconds and they all waited desperately, each moment dragging on way to long. Lisa's hand flew over the flipped open screen and keyboard built into the left forearm of her armor, reading the information as it came up in response. She looked up at Paul in alarm, a blinking red LED light from the screen reflecting on her wide brown eyes. D-Day looked back at her “What is it?!” Peregrine replied anxiously “There was a 9-1-1 call from Sarah's apartment, the line is still open, but there is no response.”

***

Sarah could only shake and sob. She retreated into her mind to the same place she had before when feeling so helpless. Michaela tore through the crotch of Sarah's flimsy flannel pajamas and scraped her razor sharp claws deep inside of her, pulling out bloody strings of flesh that had been the heart of Sarah's womanhood. Blood poured down Sarah's legs and pooled on the floor at her feet. Sarah fled desperately into her mind trying to escape the horror. She distantly heard herself scream, screeching in mortal terror. Michaela licked her hand and claws clean in Sarah's face, exultant as her victim wailed out the music Michaela played on her instrument of flesh.

“Now I am a jealous lover, my dear Sarah, and as you can see... I will be the last lover you will ever have.” With a soul-chilling growl Michaela tore the flesh off of Sarah Reed's face, her screams cut off as blood flooded into her mouth. Michaela flung the doctor against the floor with sickening force that cracked the wood below the red stained carpet, nearly pushing Sarah clear through into her basement. Sarah lay there twitching, a whisper away from death, her spine and body broken everywhere, sinking into a pool of her own blood.

“Now dearest.” Michaela bit her own hand and dripped some of her bio-energy infused blood into what remained of Sarah's mouth. “That should keep you alive long enough for someone to help you.” The vampiress stood and looked down at her work with a deep sense of satisfaction, a grin of spears on her cold blue face. Michaela left the mutilated body of Dr. Reed behind and walked towards the cordless phone on the floor beside the upturned coffee table, amid spilt tea and crushed ginger snaps. The vampire dialed 9-1-1 and left the line open, dropping the phone callously next to Sarah's bloody feet.