Runaways

“Dude, we shouldn’t be out here. You heard the TV! It’s not safe!”

“Screw that, chico. You don’t like it? Wait in the car. Me? I wanna liberate a few flat-screens off this guy’s hands. You with me or without me?”

“I’m with you, but I don’t gotta like it, Sammy.”

The two hoodlums, barely out of high school (assuming they’d even graduated in the first place), went to work on the door. The first stood watch as the second fiddled with the door jam. Finally he gave up on it and, looking from side to side, wrapped his fist in cloth before punching it through the glass of the door. An alarm was triggered, but the police didn’t answer the call. Everyone was staying inside, obeying the curfew that was supposed to keep them safe from—ha!—vampires. Supposedly vampires couldn’t come inside without being invited. Sammy scoffed at the idea, but his buddy was a tad more superstitious.

“We’re in,” said Sammy, kicking aside some of the glass in the entranceway. “Help me carry these things out to the van, Luis.”

Luis took one more look around outside before scampering inside the store. He felt safer in there. “Let’s just get this crap over with, man. I don’t like this at all. It’s got bad juju written all over it.”

Their activities did not go unnoticed by a man who stood under an alcove further down the street on the opposite side. He remained tucked inside the entrance, watching the two looters as they worked, but not reacting right away. Blade knew he would get his moment. It was all about making sure that he milked that moment for all it was worth.

The looters got further along with their looting before catching outside attention than Blade would have given them credit for, especially with the alarm blaring. They were carrying their third flat-screen TV out to the van when Blade heard the first rush of air that signaled the arrival of some being out of flight. It was either an oversized owl or, considering the night’s circumstances, something much more sinister.

A pair of vampires darted out of the sky, seizing Sammy and Luis before the two even had the chance to drop the TV. The looters’ screams joined the store alarm in piercing the otherwise peaceful night. Then, when they finally went silent, Blade emerged from the alcove. Just a moment before, there had been two vampires and two human beings. He could have exterminated the vampires, but he would have had to let the looters run free. Now, instead, he could kill all four vampires.

Sammy and Luis went down with wooden stakes shot from Blade’s crossbow. The vampire on the left went down with a series of crossbow bolts, but Blade made sure he missed the heart on the vampire on the right. He bolted over to the vampire, who was now pinned against the brick at the shoulders.

“Where is your leader?” Blade asked, spitting into the vampire’s face.

“Why do you wear sunglasses at night?” the vampire shot back.

Blade stepped back and put a crossbow bolt into each of the vampire’s kneecaps. He put his forearm against the vampire’s throat. “Let’s try again. Where—is—Topher?”

“He’s—home!” the vampire choked out, fear in its eyes. It was slowly realizing that none of its kinsmen would be coming for it. The arm against his throat belonged to the Daywalker.

“Where is home?” Blade asked, pressing harder.

“Check—ack!—Hostel!” exclaimed the vampire. There was a click from the crossbow, and the vampire’s head slumped against its chest. He was lucky these were only peons—vampires of a higher rank would have required him to remove the head and cremate it to ensure the vampire’s death. These ones went down the easy way.

“Fucking colloquialisms,” muttered Blade, walking back over to his motorcycle. “Looks like we’ll have to try this again.” He kicked the motorcycle into life and tore down the road in search of his next victims. The night may have started with nearly a thousand vampires, but by daybreak Blade would rest assured that there was a few hundred less…

THREADED MOON

Part II: Forgotten Sunrise

By Hunter Lambright

[…word coming in that there are vampires in the skies over the city. The police and fire departments have issued a total curfew while calls are made to the west coast branch of the Avengers as well as the Champions for help. As of this broadcast, none of those calls have been returned. The rumor is that the New Warriors have been reached but are still hours away. The question this reporter has to ask is this: if no one else is around, who will save us from this nightmare?]

Nico flicked the power button on the remote control. “If that wasn’t them asking us for help, I don’t know what is.” She stood up, flattening her rumpled clothing. “What do you say, K?”

From her spot on the couch, Karolina looked up. “I don’t know, Nico. Doesn’t this seem a little…big…for us to be dealing with?”

Nico shook her head, her black hair moving back and forth with the motion. “Our parents would have been out there dealing with this. They would have protected the city because it was their lives. We replaced them and made protecting the city our job. I’d say we have more reason to at least try.”

Karolina bit her lip. “I know. It’s just, I’ve got cold feet, y’know? We’re talking about vampires.”

“You just don’t let ‘em get close enough to bite you and everything’s fine,” Nico said, grinning. “Don’t listen to Alex. He’s trying to think too hard about this when what we need to be doing is putting an end to it the old-fashioned way.”

There was a commotion in the hallway. Karolina jumped at the sound, while Nico burst out laughing. Molly appeared in the doorway of the living room, her arms loaded with makeshift wooden stakes along with a crucifix dangling from her wrist. Garlic cloves were threaded on a string around her neck. “We ready to go?” she asked brightly.

Nico put her head in her hands as Karolina struggled to hold back her laughter. Neither of them had the heart to tell the younger girl to leave the job to the big kids.

“What?” Molly asked, a frown on her face. “Too much garlic?”

At that moment, Nico’s cell rang, blasting out some screaming band’s latest hit. “Hello?” Nico asked, internally thankful that her phone had saved her from answering Molly.

“Hey, Nico, it’s Alex. You guys have seen the news, right?”

“Yeah, we have. What do you make of it?” Nico asked.

Alex sighed. “Well, it’s real. That much I know for sure. I’m doing what I can to organize some of our parents’ contacts, but nobody seems to be willing to listen to me since I’m not my dad. I’m trying to trace the source of this night thing, too. It seems to be limited to Los Angeles city limits, according to reports from people on the edge of town. But right now, well, we really don’t know what’s going on, Nico.”

“Me and Karolina want to go out and help,” Nico said, covering the mouthpiece so Molly wouldn’t hear.

“I won’t stop you,” Alex replied. “You want my advice, though? Wear a turtleneck.”

“What do we do about you-know-who?” Nico asked.

“I know you’re talking about me!” Molly broke in. “I’m not a stupid kid.”

“Well, yeah, what do we do about Molly?” Nico said, sighing.

“Send her down to me,” Alex said. “I have something she can help me with. Besides, tell her she doesn’t want to get bitten and have to suck blood out of people for the rest of her life.”

“But me and Gert already beat one vampire!” Molly replied, having heard Alex through the ear piece. “I’m already better at it than all of you.”

“Believe me, Molly,” Alex said from the other end of the line, “what we’re doing is a lot more important than being outside right now. Come on down to the Lair. I’ll show you what’s up.” For the first time, Nico realized she could hear Alex’s hands moving at lightning-fast pace across a keyboard. “C’mon, Mols. Your brawn and my speed? We’ll make it a contest to see who kicks more vampire butt.”

“Yeah?” Molly asked. She looked at Nico and Karolina. “Well our team’s going to win! What’s our team name, Alex?”

“I’ll let you figure it out, Molly. Meet me down in the Lair, all right?” Alex replied.

“Thank you,” Nico said. “We’ll be careful, all right?”

“Honestly?” said Alex, chuckling. “I’m more worried about what I’ve gotten myself into now. Kick some butt for me, would you?”

“Sure,” Nico said. “Well, assuming there’s some of you left by the time Molly’s done…”

The Juice Box

Chase tumbled out onto the ground of the pocket dimension known as the Juice Box, a druggie’s haven that wasn’t subject to any of earth’s laws thanks to its unique location. The teleportation portal composed of swirling lights and dots closed behind him. As it did, Chase stood up and dusted himself off, depositing his gear and weaponry in a cubbyhole off to the side of the room.

He stepped down the stairs into the main room, which comprised of four walls lined with shelves filled to capacity with every kind of drug imaginable, including a few Chase had never heard of. In the center of the room sat the Pusher Man at his desk, wearing a hat and oversized glasses straight out of the seventies. His head bobbed lucidly, like he was coming off a particularly good high. “Master Stein, I’m surprised to see you here.”

Chase gestured to the walls. “Looks like you restocked since the kids ransacked the place. Good thing, what with the shit that’s going down in L.A.”

The Pusher Man folded his hands together, a feat made much more difficult by the Pimp Hand gauntlets he was wearing. He either had a backup pair or had reconstructed his old ones after Nico had reduced his old gauntlets to so much scrap metal. “Do tell, Master Stein. I don’t get much outside news in here. It’s good to keep up on the times, what’s cool and what’s not. You’re a sly cat, Stein. Tell a fella, what’s up out in the real world?” He put finger quotes around the last two words.

“Well, Los Angeles was just taken over by vampires,” Chase said. “Problem is, that’s bad for business, and what’s bad for our business means we charge more from the businesses that aren’t affected by the vampires, you know?”

The Pusher Man frowned, and peered at Chase over his glasses. “I follow you, assuming you’re not trippin’.”

“Good thing we’re on the same page. Turns out, I was able to use some of that Cape you gave me a while back to get me out of a pinch. Thing is, if Cape is Cloak, and we all know dark doesn’t kill vampires, I could use a jar of Dagger right now. What do you call that? Knife?”

The Pusher Man leaned back in his chair, pulling back one of the drawers at his left. “You know, we were going to call it that, but since you want to use it against vampires? I think we can call it ‘Blade.’” The Pusher Man laughed at his own joke, pulling out a jar of gleaming white powder. “This is it. Take the whole jar.”

“Will do,” said Chase. He started to walk away, then stopped and turned back to the Pusher Man. “The loan you took out to restock? Forget it. Clean slate, man.”

The Pusher Man cocked an eyebrow. “To what do I owe such graciousness?”

Chase smiled. “Hey, we’re in a squeeze, and you helped us out. What can I say? You’re one of the Pride’s most loyal customers. I mean, think of it this way. You’re on our good side. We don’t send men in black after people on our good side. Keep up what you’re doing. Where you’re at right now? It’s a good place to be.”

The Lair

“What are we looking for, Alex?”

Molly’s voice cut across the clatter of Alex’s fingers across the keyboard. He stopped typing for a moment and looked at Molly. “We’re looking through our parents’ assets, or their logs about the assets, just so we can get an idea of who or what we can use against these things.”

“Oh,” said Molly. She went silent for a moment, probably trying to figure out what exactly “assets” were. Alex waited until she formed her next thought so that he wouldn’t be interrupted again. Molly didn’t disappoint him.

“Shouldn’t we be, you know, figuring out where they came from so we can stop them?” Molly asked, frowning.

Alex chewed that thought over for a moment. “Huh. I don’t know. I guess I always figured the heroes would figure that out when they showed up.” He bit his lip. “And here I thought we were done waiting for adults to act. Congratulations, Molly. It’s not all that often I feel stupid, but you’ve been making it a habit.”

“I’m the best there is at what I do,” Molly said in a chipper tone of voice that always seemed to be able to stop Alex from getting mad at her. “Ooh, look! What about this guy?” she said, changing subjects abruptly.

“Who?” asked Alex, rolling his chair over to where she pored through picture files.

“The guy with the devils in his arms,” Molly replied, pointing at the picture of Master Pandemonium. Nico’s parents had promised him they would help him find his soul if he helped them get their daughter back. In the end, they’d been forced to deal with him personally when he’d attacked Nico with more brutality than they could ever have expected.

Alex grimaced. “Do we even know where he is anymore?”

Molly pointed at the screen. “The screen says he’s in the Minorus’ magic vault. What’s a magic vault, Alex?”

The gears were turning in Alex then, both literally and figuratively. “I have no idea, Molly, but I have a feeling we’re going to find out. Are you up for a field trip to Nico’s old house?”

“Sweet! It’s a mystery!” shouted Molly, and they were on their way.

The Hostel

Over the years one of the most common urban legends that cropped up in southern California was that of a mansion buried somewhere in the hilly area at the outskirts of Los Angeles’ suburbs. Books were often written about the subject, with people who claimed to have found the mansion emerging with oddly-sized clothing and strange and wonderful artifacts. These claims, however, were hardly ever taken seriously, and never once did one of the people who claimed to have found it ever find it again.

Well, that was true until recently, when Chase Stein found it with the aid of one of his father’s books on the subject. He and his friends had used the hideout to escape from their parents. They had since abandoned it, but during their short stay its occupant had returned home and reacted with hostility to his unexpected guests.

Once again in charge of his home, Topher leaned against one of the mansion’s Doric columns reading an ancient tome scripted in a dead language. Stuck in his body as it was at age sixteen, he looked more like a schoolboy studying after class than a vampire bent on revenge for his transformation. He mumbled to himself as he traced the line with his finger. The spell he had cast to cause a twenty-four hour night would wear off in just over twelve hours. Topher’s body suddenly twitched as he felt two more of his bloodline suddenly fizzle out.

“Resistance?” He spat the word, then launched himself upward toward the top of the cave-like area that housed the Hostel, flying into the false night through the bats’ exit.

“We’ll show them resistance.”

Physique’s Clinic

Primo Falcone sat with his elbows on his knees in the waiting room of Physique’s clinic, waiting worriedly as the doctor continued to work on his brother’s back. Matti Falcone had been injured by the Pride’s mutant couple and had treated his wound badly. Now he was delusional from the infection that most likely permeated his body.

Needless to say, things weren’t looking good.

Primo could see Physique moving through the thin blind, but could see no more than that, and that bugged him more than anything. Here he was in the middle of a crisis, and he was sitting waiting on the person he couldn’t help, while there could be hundreds of people in danger that he could. Primo quickly scribbled a note on the clipboard that hung outside the operating room.

Moments later, a glowing, green falcon lifted off into the night.

“Crap!” Chase emerged from the Pusher Man’s portal—into open space.

The portal dumped him in the middle of the park, far away from any home that he would be safe from the vampires’ rule against entering a home without permission. He looked around and heard nothing. Then, on impulse, Chase looked up, shouted, and rolled. The vampire—this one a Latino teenager no older than fifteen—hissed and swung upward into the sky again.

Slinging the Lightning Rod from his shoulder, Chase aimed it upwards and fired off a blast of energy at the retreating creature. His shot barely missed as the teen angled off into the tree line, blending in with the treetops. Chase heard a rustling toward his right and fired off into the trees. A cat screeched in return as it scurried out of the way, its fur standing on end from the static residue. He was suddenly hit from behind by another body, arms wrapping around him and threatening to carry him into the air. Chase wrapped his arms back around the vampire’s head and ignited his Fistigons. The vampire screeched and let go, sending Chase careening into the grass.

The teenage vampire was back again, but Chase raised his fist and held it solid, letting the boy ram himself into the broken limb Chase had landed on when the other vampire dropped him. The pale-skinned creature had no blood. It merely collapsed onto the ground, withered, and moved no more.

There was no rest for Chase, however, as three more vampire descended from above. One wore the garb of a policeman, and was pulling its gun from its holster. Chase popped off three quick rounds from the Lightning Rod. Two caught the police-vampire in the gut, while the third disappeared into the distance. The other two vampires descended and Chase lit the female’s hair and clothing aflame with his gauntlets. He ducked and rolled, causing the third vampire to grasp only grass from its dive. Still, this vampire recovered much more quickly than its brother and reversed its flight pattern. It pinned Chase to the ground before he could get to his feet. The vampire leaned in for that fatal kiss at his neck.

Then, before Chase’s life had a chance to flash before his eyes, the vampire’s grip slackened. Protruding from its chest was a wooden crossbow bolt that had pierced clean through the creature’s heart.

Chase looked up to see a man in black silhouetted against the light of the threaded moon. The man lowered his crossbow, satisfied with his kill. The dull hum of a motorcycle’s engine hummed from somewhere off behind him.

“Go home, kid,” said the black man, offering Chase no help whatsoever. “That gun of yours is a beacon. Lets ‘em know where there’re people out exempt from the rules.”

Chase grunted as he pushed himself to his feet. “Hnh. Who’re you supposed to be?”

“They call me Blade,” said the man, loading a new set of bolts into his crossbow. “Doing this is my job.”

“Oh yeah?” Chase brushed off his pants. “Well, guess what? I got something here that’ll do stuff your fancy gizmos can’t.”

It was Blade’s turn to grunt. “And what’s that, kid?”

Chase pulled out the bottle of ‘blade.’ “This. Gives you light powers. What’s more powerful against these freaks than that?”

Blade eyed Chase skeptically. “Tell you what, kid. You might be useful after all. What can you tell me about a place called ‘the Hostel?’”

“We’ve been out for almost an hour, Nico,” Karolina said, her brow furrowed in confusion. “Why haven’t we seen any vampires yet? Is Alex pulling our leg or something?”

Nico shook her head. The two walked along a dead silent city street, looking in every direction for any sign of the supernatural. “It’s too elaborate, even for Alex. I think they’re either congregating—or, and this sounds weird, maybe they’re avoiding us.”

Karolina stopped. “Why?”

“Why what?”

“Why avoid us?” Karolina asked, though her left hand went to her right wrist instinctively. “You don’t think…?”

“I don’t think what?” asked Nico, cocking a skeptical eyebrow.

Karolina shrugged. “My powers. They’re light-based, somehow, we think. Is it possible that they’re solar-based?”

Nico shrugged. “It’s possible, but how would they know—K, look out!”

Darting out of the sky with a speed to rival that of a falcon, a shadow blasted out of the pitch-black sky and punched Karolina in the side of the face. Her head whipped to the side at the contact. She fell to the ground and stayed there, unmoving.

“No!” Nico shouted, holding the Staff of One in front of her like a ward, hoping that, just maybe, its magical properties could fend off the creature of the night who had attacked Karolina.

Then, as if out of thin air, the vampire stepped from the shadows. He looked to be no older than Nico herself, and wore a smug grin on his face. “How, indeed,” Topher laughed, as he advanced toward Nico step by step.

“Take one more step,” Nico spat. “Just try it, you freak.”

“I’m wounded,” said Topher, placing his hand over the ice-cold spot that he would have once said was his heart. “How could you say such a thing to me, grandniece?”

The Minoru Residence

“What are we looking for?” Molly asked indignantly, as Alex pored over the bookshelves in the Minorus’ private library. Dusty volumes filled the cherry wood bookcases, some in languages that didn’t appear to have been written in any known alphabet.

Alex shook his head. “Anything. The Yorkes had a secret room for storing their artifacts off their library, so I thought I’d start here. There’s nothing in the floor plan of the house about a random secret vault, so I guess it’s going to take some work.”

“What about down there?” asked Molly.

Alex looked up. “Down where?”

“Under,” Molly said. “Here.” She bent down at the corner of the expansive area rug in the open area of the library and yanked it backward, upturning the sofa and armchairs that sat near the fireplace. “Oops—hey! Look!”

There, set into the floorboards, was a trapdoor. The iron ring that served as its handle had been pressed down into a cut-out so that anyone walking over the rug wouldn’t have detected its presence through the soles of his feet.

Alex’s eyes went wide in surprise. “Hey, Molly, did anyone ever tell you that you might have more than one mutant power?”

Molly smiled brightly. “The people at mutant school told me everyone’s special, dummy.”

Alex ruffled Molly’s hair. “Yeah? Well in that case, you’re just plain brilliant, Mols.” Alex activated the sprint-accelerators that had been implanted in his body by the mad doctor, Jonas Harrow. In the blink of an eye, he opened the trapdoor and was down the stairs and out of sight. “It’s safe!” he shouted back up at Molly in the library.

Molly hopped down the stairs one by one, and stopped dead in her tracks. Staring at her with empty eyes from a stasis tube in the “magic vault” was Master Pandemonium. “A-Alex?”

“I don’t think he can see us,” Alex said quickly. He was working his way into the back of the vault. Some of the stasis tubes held items of mystical importance, but others, such as the one nearest Molly, held magical villains.

“Who’re the creepy people?” Molly asked.

Alex frowned. “It looks like they’re bad guys that Nico’s mom and dad were holding down here for some reason. I…I think we should leave.”

Molly burst into laughter and pointed up into one of the tubes. “Alex! Look at this guy! He has pointy ears, like Batman!”

Alex walked over to the tube, and looked for a moment at the face of the infamous villain who rested without movement inside the tube. Then he nearly wet his pants as the World War II-era’s eyes snapped open.

“Vile treason!” burbled Baron Blood. “Flowing from my bloodline—usurping my position! Let me out! Let me out, and I will devour the traitor—devour him!”

Molly tugged at the back of Alex’s shirt from behind him. “Leaving, right?”

Alex held up his hand. “Hold on, Molly…I think this guy might have something here…” He held out his hands, facing the tube. “Tell me what you can offer us, Baron Blood. I’m all ears—no pun intended—so the floor is yours.

“Tell me why I should trust you.”

To Be Continued…

Author’s Note

If you couldn’t tell, this story blossomed way past the size of an annual. That said, be back next issue for more Blade, more vampires, and the clash between two evils unleashed! Plus, we’ll begin to search into what happened to the kids’ grandparents! See ya next time, and here’s hoping it takes less than a few months to write this one, eh?

 

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