Project A-Ko Fan Fiction / Ranma 1/2 Fan Fiction / Vampire Hunter (Darkstalkers) Fan Fiction ❯ Nabiki 1/2 (A Very Scary Thought) ❯ Road Rage... ( Chapter 118 )

Nabiki 1/2

(A Very Scary Thought)

Written by Jim Robert Bader

Proofread by Shiva Barnwell

Based Upon the Altered Destinies Storyline

Inspired by the works of such fans as

Wade Tritshler

Richard Lawson

James Jones

And Many Others

Standard Disclaimer: This is inspired by the work of Takahashi Rumiko and is not my original creation. All characters belong to her. This is only a fanfictional work, and is not intended to compromise the rights of the original owners, distributors and publishers of the Ranma series. I have no money to spare and would very much appreciate if no one tries to sue me.

Miyu was hard pressed into a corner and knew that she was up against long odds. The Goya confronting her were well armed and well trained, six of the most determined fighters that she had ever yet encountered and certainly geared for only one purpose: her immediate destruction. They had the tools, they had the training, and they most certainly had the will to take Miyu down while displaying a remarkable level of teamwork and camaraderie, almost unheard of traits when it came to dealing with Goya.

In spite of being stronger, faster and more powerful than any one of her foes in a head-to-head match, Miyu was the one being taxed by their combined resources, to say nothing of those curious and unusual devices that they employed to neutralize her strong points. Each Goya was wearing a suit that protected their vital areas behind plates of interlaced ceramic tiles neatly fastened to flexible body armor that left little surface area exposed, and from the way they moved it was clearly a lightweight compound of some unknown manufacture. Their body armor was also laced with some sort of electronic webbing that insulated them against her soulfire attacks and other magical means of overwhelming her opponents. They had face masks that blocked out her attempts to fix them with her gaze, and their ears were muffled against her attempts to charm them with her voice, and as for presence attacks…they were singularly ineffective. In short, they were immune to her special abilities while presenting few vulnerabilities to exploit against them, and they fought with silver-edged bladed weapons designed for close-quarters fighting and fought in such a coordinated way that one always covered the flanks of the other, and one always attacked when another was forced to expose their backside for even a moment.

Were it possible for her to do so Miyu would have been panting and sweating from exhaustion just keeping one step ahead of these killers. As it was she had been relentlessly forced back into a corner and was facing a likely rush from all sides by the Goya, who sought only an instant of weakness on her part to signal the time to strike with overwhelming fury. Miyu tensed as she felt her resources begin to flag, her Bloodthirst taking over as the expenditure of energy needed to sustain her thus far was taxing her reserves, leaving her with barely enough to last out another minute of intense fighting. Hunger was making it difficult to think rationally, and the odds of getting careless and doing something rashly stupid were increasing by the second as her golden eyes took on a reddish cast and the Madness threatened to take over.

She began to snarl in a low animal-like fury. How dare these walking cadavers threaten her, the Princess of Tribe Shinma? They were nothing more than demons possessing the empty husks of the mortals whose souls they had displaced, low-lifes, riff-raff, common bottom feeders in the food chain of Vampirism. They were little better than animals, callous beasts who preyed upon the weak and helpless, who laughed at human suffering, who cared little about the Pact and quite often violated the Covenant as though beyond the authority of the Supreme Vampire Council. Losing to them would be a humiliation never to be endured, and death would be a mercy at their hands if only to spare her having to admit to being bested by their foul ilk.

Of course she knew that these were only soldiers, that someone else was pulling their strings, someone clever enough to combine the wonders of technology with the Craft of the Old Ways, someone who disdained to face Miyu directly in honorable combat. It galled her to think of such a one somewhere laughing at her expense, and she immediately thought of Dimitri Maximoff and snarled once again, this time feeling her rage boil over with a righteous need for vengeance.

The Goya sensed that Miyu was about to end the stalemate and readied themselves for a counter-attack maneuver that would result in the removal of her head before the Princess of the Shinma got farther than three paces…but before they could complete their primary mission objective they heard a word of power being uttered from behind them, and then a wave of force lashed out, picking up every stray object in the room and turning them into a hurtling cyclone that pummeled the Goya from their rears, distracting them for a critical instant and giving Miyu the chance she so desperately needed.

Like a shot she launched herself in a lunge that saw the tip of her blade thrust itself through the eye-piece of the helmet of the nearest Goya on her right, and with flawless aim she skewered his medulla oblongata. She withdrew the point and slashed at the throat of the female Goya further to her right and managed to pierce through the weakest point in the kevlar-tough joint, slicing through both artery and jugular vein in passing before nicking the spine and severing a vital connection.

Like that the right flank facing her collapsed to the floor, both Goya disintegrating as the ethereal energies that sustained them tore their molecular frames to their component atoms. Miyu stepped to the side and prepared to meet the remaining four Goya head-on, but before she could, a cloaked shape loomed over the one furthest to the rear, and then Larva enveloped that Goya in his cloak and seemed to swallow him up into the shadowy folds, startling the other three Goya, who turned to meet this entirely new challenge.

That was when Himiko lunged forward with a wooden stake and thrust it dagger-like into the temple of a third Goya, managing to rip off his helmet while doing so to expose the man to the deadly thrust. The fourth Goya met his end on the tip of Nagi's blade while the fifth was grabbed from behind by a badly burned Leguire, and with a massive twist the Loire snapped the Goya's neck then dropped him as the body immediately began disintegration.

The sixth backed away with a bewildered look, only to wind up ensnared by a whip-like string of Sakura blossoms that Yui wrapped around him, tripping him up and tumbling the Goya to the floor. The others were about to surge over the now helpless Goya when Miyu snapped out, "HOLD! I want this one alive! I need to know more about the one who sent him!"

The sixth turned and glared at Miyu from behind his mask then snapped, "You will never learn a thing from me, Half-breed!" And with a sudden jolt of his head he snapped his own neck, thus triggering his fatal disintegration and soon all that was left of him was his high-tech outfit and the ashes that spilled out from the edges.

"Fanatic," Nagi snorted, "These Goya are worse than beasts. They don't even value their own undead existence…"

"Why should they?" Yui asked, "A Goya soul can always find another body to inhabit just as soon as another Goya bites yet another victim."

"You are all right, my Princess?" Larva asked.

"Yes…thanks to you all," Miyu sagged a bit, "But…your timing was almost a bit too late, I am afraid..."

"Are you all right, Miyu-chan?" Himiko asked, "We came as soon as we were able…"

"Yes, but in another moment I would have finished the job myself," Leguire boasted, staring at his reddened body with disgust, "I am soooo much in need of some Aloe lotion right now…"

"Consider yourself fortunate," another figure staggered forward with forced dignity in his bearing, his skin all charred and blackened so that he seemed more of a rotting corpse than a Nosferatu, "I would gladly trade for skin such as yours, and I come from a land where the sun shines down with relentless intensity. It is fortunate that you are well, Princess, and that you held these rogues at bay long enough for the rest of us to recover."

"M'shulla?" Miyu was appalled, "What…happened to you…to the rest of you?"

"Some kind of bomb, I think," Nagi shrugged.

"No, not just a bomb," Yui contradicted, "It was more like some kind of super UV burst that hit us all with an effect like concentrated sunlight. Those of us who were sensitive to the rays were killed instantly, while the rest of us…" she let her tone drift away as she turned to regard a statue that lay upon the floor, frozen in the position that Yasmina had been in when the bomb was detonated.

"Yasmina?" Miyu's voice shook with horrified emotion, "How…how many casualties?"

"Dukov, Sabastian and Yargo are dead," Leguire replied matter-of-factly, "The rest of us…well, as you can see, it will be some time before either the Bushman or I have fully recovered."

"Not Yargo?" Miyu felt like weeping, "Poor Yargo…he was the one I was counting on the most to keep this conference together…"

"Small chance of that now," Himiko sighed, "They hit us pretty hard and made us all look like amateurs, and it's even worse out there in the lobby. The tribes are going to go nuts when they hear about this…"

"And well they should," Leguire snorted, "This was an outrage! You were supposed to provide better security, but more than that, any chance of a treaty between our clans is as dead as Yargo's nonexistent corpse. When my leaders hear about what has happened…!"

"Surely you are not blaming us for the attack?" Larva asked the Loire noble.

"No, but I most certainly fault you for failing to insure my safety and that of the other delegates," Leguire retorted, "Julian is unaccounted for, but from what I saw they had an Immortal adversary of his on their team, which means that they were well prepared for us in advance, and as soon as we learn who among us is responsible for tipping off the enemy to our supposedly secret meeting!"

"Now wait a minute here," Nagi snapped, "Just who are you accusing here or being a traitor?"

"In case you haven't noticed, all of us were targets here," Yui pointed out, "Those guys really meant to wipe us out, and they weren't pulling any punches."

"Perhaps none of you were to blame," Leguire said with adamant intensity, "But who is to say if one of the other tribes cooperated with information even knowing that their own delegate might meet their demise…and I have noticed that the Chinese representative was no present during this attack. Perhaps Tsiel tribe plotted to wreck these negotiation and blame it on a third party. It was their dispute with the Kriel that started this…"

"Am I to take it, then, that I am under suspicion because I was delayed in attending?"

"Eh?" Miyu asked as all eyes turned towards the one who had spoken, and with a start recognition hit home with such impact that even the Loire representative was taken aback.

"Ling?" Miyu asked in some amazement.

"Your majesty?" M'shulla gasped, then attempted to bend down, only to be stopped by a word from the new arrival.

"No, old friend, do not trouble yourself," Ling-Ko urged, "I can see that the act of remaining upright is trying enough for your resources. You did your part casting that spell to distract these malefactors, but now that I am here you can relax and give your body the time it needs to heal. And as for you, young man," she turned her gaze upon Leguire, "Do you honestly believe that I would attend this conference while intending to sabotage negotiations and begin a war between Tsiel and Kriel? I should hardly think it likely."

"Your majesty," Leguire bowed, "Forgive, I did not mean to imply that you personally were to blame for starting this…"

"That is good," Ling-Ko folded her arms, "Because I went to a lot of trouble to be here, at considerable risk to my own personal safety when I could have remained at home and risked nothing. Simply by being here I have made myself a splendid target, and I doubt that I could be accused of vanity by saying an even more valuable one for whatever enemy is seeking our elimination."

"Your majesty…" Himiko raised a hand and glanced to the side, "One moment, please. I think I her something…"

"As do I," Larva turned his head, "And it is coming right for us."

The others turned to follow the same direction as the Shinma's gaze, only to stare in dismay at the sight of an object hurtling towards them and trailing a jet of flame out of its rear. This missile was bearing down upon them with a supersonic hiss of death pointing at them with a warhead.

No sooner did this impression form upon their eyes, however, when something streaked into its path and all at once it exploded.

The shockwave rolled over them and caused some to shift their balance until the event had passed them by, and then they straightened up again, confusion written large in many expressions though the Blood Mother herself hardly batted an eyelash.

When the ringing in their ears finally died down, Himiko turned to the Queen of tribe Tsiel and said, "You knew that was going to happen?"

"I suspected something like it, but no, I did not know it for a fact," Ling-Ko replied, "However, I came prepared for just such an attempted ambush."

All at once a pair of figures materialized in the space beside her, flanking her like protective guardians, one a woman with pale skinned woman in the traditional Chinese dress of a priestess, the other a blue-skinned woman in similar Taoist dress, only she had a set of bulging wings projecting from her back that ended in large claw-like projections. The two of them were instantly recognizable by all of those present, and it came as something of a redundant remark when Yui said, "Mei-Ling and Tsien-Ko?"

"Those two are your escorts?" Nagi remarked, quite visibly impressed.

"Nihao," the blue-skinned Tsien-Ko remarked, "Long time no see, Kids. Afterlife been treating you well?"

"Boy, are you guys ever a sight for sore eyes," Himiko admitted.

"Is this an appropriate time for greetings?" Larva asked, "The enemy may attempt to attack with something stronger than a missile."

"No," M'shulla spoke up, "I do not think so. They have taken their best shot and it has been thwarted…so the logical thing for them to do now would be to fall back and reassess their remaining options."

"Logic?" Leguire snarled, "You expect logic from a situation such as this?"

"No, he is right," said Miyu as she seemed to be staring out at nothing but was actually extending her senses in all directions, "A careful enemy never rushes to the attack, and the one who set this in motion was a very careful and methodical planner. The Queen's arrival must have upset some sort of timetable that he was working upon, so it would be logical to fall back and regroup. At this point it would hardly matter…they have already drawn blood and have inflicted heavy casualties upon us."

"Your reasoning is sound, Miyu," Ling-Ko remarked, "Indeed, it would make sense to draw back and wait until we expose another opening for a second strike against us. Or perhaps I should make that a third since there were strike teams aimed at eliminating my escort and me. All the other members of my entourage were killed but for the sisters, who have supported me in my decision to come here."

"We're not too happy about it though, Cousin," Tsien-Ko remarked, "Making yourself a target just to impress the Kriel that you weren't behind this?"

"It's risky and it may not work," Mei-Ling noted, "The Shadow Tsar of the Kriel might still go to war just to keep his own people happy. There will be howls for blood when word of this atrocity gets out, and all of the major tribes could wind up getting caught up in the resulting feud."

"Which is no doubt what Dimitri Maximoff was planning all along," Ling-Ko remarked, "To set us at each others throats and to create such chaos that he can ride to power over the dust of our corpses."

Leguire shot a sudden glare at the Blood Queen, "Dimitri Maximoff? That traitor??? He is behind this!?!?"

"Apparently," M'shulla remarked, "It bears the audacity that is his style…and yet…I find it strange that he would employ humans as well as Goya. And technology? That does not suit the style of his Dark Pack."

"I concur with you there," Larva said, "I met with Dimitri before this happened and…I had the distinct impression that he was being distracted with a…personal problem."

"Personal problem?" Yui asked, "Like what?"

"He is having difficulties resulting from a recent conversion he made," Miyu revealed, "I do not understand all of the details myself, but I believe one of his other schemes is coming back to haunt him."

"Indeed?" Ling-Ko asked, "I would like to hear more of the details."

"Another time, your Majesty," Nagi said, "In the meantime…do you hear police sirens?"

"I do," Ling-Ko replied, "Mei-Ling, you and Tsien-Ko run interference. We will need a few minutes distraction to pull our people out of here."

"Of course," Mei-Ling nodded.

"You can count on us, Cuz," Tsien-Ko seconded, and with that the sisters vanished from the room, leaving the others behind to take care of other business.

"Our people?" Leguire asked with a puzzled expression.

"We're bringing Yasmina with us," Ling-Ko replied, "Her kind are harder to kill than simple exposure to sunlight. It might yet be possible to revive her."

"I will see to it myself, your Majesty," M'shulla affirmed.

"No offence, Uncle," Yui remarked, "But you can barely stand upright. Nagi, what say we help the boys out?"

"Just be careful not to drop her while she is in her crystal form," Miyu said, "Larva? I know you need time to recover, but…"

"I am not so feeble that I would decline helping out," the Shinma warrior insisted.

"I knew that," Miyu smiled, then added, "Himiko-chan? I will require your assistance."

"I was wondering when you were going to ask," Himiko chided, "You look about ready to collapse yourself, Miyu-chan. No one expects you to be strong all of the time."

"I know," Miyu weakly smiled, "But one must keep up appearances…before their…Blood Mother…"

Himiko managed to catch the swaying Shinma princess before Miyu could hit the ground, at which point Ling-Ko just smiled and said, "Everyone says that around me, even if, at times, I wonder myself if I truly deserve it…"

"They're still gaining on us, Miyuki!" Natsumi called out.

"I know that!" Miyuki snapped, "I've got it floored now, but my poor little Subi-chan can't make it over a hundred-twenty, not after all that it's been through!"

"So you're blaming me for putting that dent in your hood?" Natsumi asked, which brought a brief flash of a smile to both their faces before going deadly serious once again as Miyuki tried to shake their pursuers and Natsumi trained her gun at anyone who came too close to their fender.

Close in pursuit behind them was a van filled with red-eyed creatures brandishing weapons yet looking more as if they wanted to capture the fleeing women alive, so their aim was a bit off since they were trying to hit the tires of Miyuki's damaged Subaru without causing them to crash. It was obviously good sport to these Goya vampires and they were in no hurry to end the chase, but the one who was not a vampire was growing impatient and snapped at the driver, "Faster, you fool! Don't let them escape us!"

Flanking them were a number of motorcyclists equally fired up by the glory of the hunt, but the one in the rear differed remarkably from the others in that he was head and shoulders above the lot and was in command of a machine that was like a bull to a greyhound as he was a giant among men. As he pulled up alongside the two Goya vampires in the rear he flipped a stud on his handlebars and suddenly a pair of iron bars shot out from the sides of his machine and caught the wheels of the two rebel bikers, arresting their motions and sending the drivers spilling off of their machines and onto the hard asphalt.

"Two down," Frank noted, "Now what say we give the ladies some relief."

He touched another stud and mini-rockets shot from the rear of his motorcycle to unerringly strike at two more biker-vamps, sending them careening off to the sides and thus cutting down the numbers of those trailing after the herd, even as Frank gunned his engine and shot ahead to catch up with the others.

"What is it with these creeps?" Natsumi cried wildly as she changed yet another clip of ammo on her nine millimeter, "I've hit 'em at least a dozen times but they keep on coming!"

In the back seat of the Subaru the man named Julian stirred from his rest and mumbled out the words, "Aim for the heads…"

"Oh yeah?" Natsumi was about to bark something about the man trying it himself if he thought it would make a difference, but right then one of the bikers vaulted from his machine and grabbed the back end of the Subaru, rearing up in Natsumi's vision like a horrific shape with his face distorted to something inhumanly demonic.

Natsumi felt a jolt of panic as the creature clawed at her and without pausing to think she automatically aimed her weapon point-blank and fired off into its face, her first shot going right through the bridge of its nose and exiting out the back of the skull with a terrible eruption. The next instant the creature began crumbling into dust before her very eyes, first its skin peeling away and then its skull reducing itself to powder, leaving nothing but a flapping leather jacket to fall away to the road in its passage.

"Fuck me!" Natsumi exclaimed in disbelief over what had just happened.

"Later, I promise!" Miyuki called back, obviously having only caught the event in her rear-view mirror but too intent on keeping them both alive to devote more than a fraction of her attention away from the road.

Armed with new knowledge of the effectiveness of a shot against the right target, Natsumi was careful to aim her next three shots exactly at the mental "bulls-eye" that she drew with her eyes on each of her subsequent targets…and with the result that three more attackers peeled away, their bodies crumbling to dirt long before their machines skidded out of control in riderless mayhem.

"What?" Sergei exclaimed as he saw his servants being picked off one-by-one, and he snarled as he cried out, "That's it, ram those bitches! Let's put an end to this farce!"

The driver was about to comply with the command when suddenly the van itself began to lurch underneath them, the rear end ripped apart by a pair of hands that were as big as mallets as Frank presented himself to the posse within with a horrific smile that terrified even the most hardened of vampires.

"Knock-knock!" he snarled before setting to grisly work upon the Goyas.

"Hey, why are you slowing down, Miyuki?" Natsumi asked.

"I thought I saw Doctor Steinberg back there…" Miyuki started to say when she gasped in amazement, seeing the now-riderless motorcycle belonging to Frank pulling up alongside them.

"Hi there, girls, long time no see," came the disembodied voice that they knew of only as Shelley, "Look, the Boss is a bit busy back there, so why don't you follow me and I'll lead you guys to a safe house where he can catch up with us later."

"Um…thank you," Miyuki responded, not knowing what else to say to the motorcycle's entreaty.

"Okay, this is definitely beyond the point of weirdness," Natsumi said as she returned to facing forward, only to go wide eyed as she cried, "MIYUKI!!!"

"Whoops!" Shelly exclaimed as Miyuki frantically hit the breaks and tried to spin their vehicle around out of the way of the other car that had just moved to cut them off, and unfortunately this caused both motorbike and Subaru to veer wildly out of control and crash into one another with the result that the human-driven car went crashing at a vertical angle into the black sedan that had pulled up on them from out of no where.

Frank was busy tearing the van apart from the insides when this happened, but he was not so distracted as to miss the collision dead ahead of their vehicle, which caused him to look up and cry, "NO!"

That was when the pommel end of a scimitar hit him on the jaw-hard! Frank recoiled as Sergei tried to follow up on his attack, only to find that the driver to their vehicle was missing a head, and with that realization they went plowing into the back of the sedan with force enough to spin the other vehicle in a circle.

"Mmmphuki?"

"Phaat?"

Natsumi pushed away at the airbag and gasped, "We're still alive?"

Miyuki coughed a bit as her bag deflated, "I guess so…but my car…"

"We're alive, that's more luck than we could ask at the moment," Natsumi said as she started to get up out from her seat, only to have a pair of hands grip her arm, and suddenly she was looking into the face of death itself in the form of yet another vampire.

The door on Miyuki's side was torn from the hinges as yet another Goya gripped her by the neck and hauled her from the vehicle, baring fangs in a snarl of savage hunger.

"Gah!" Frank declared as he managed to tear his way loose from the ruined van, "Sure hate to be the insurance guy who has to cash in this policy…now, where did that Bolshevik Bastard get off to?"

There was no immediate sign of Sergei, but Frank did see the situation of the two policewoman and called out, "HEY! Hands off my lady friends, you stinking garlic eaters!"

A dozen Goya turned and snarled at him, all of them sporting weapons from chains to baseball bats sporting nails to actual katanas, and none of them looking too happy about the insult.

"Uh…maybe we could talk about this?" Frank asked, then balled his fists, "On second thought, why bother?"

Natsumi was petrified by the most horrible sense of helplessness imaginable as the horrifying thing gripping her neck prepared to sink its fangs into her jugular. She had no leverage to apply in order to break its hold, was helpless before the savage strength that it displayed, and her gun-hand was pinned to her side preventing her from using it as she stench of its hot breath against her neck made her cringe in terror. For the first time in her young life she had a very real sense of what death was and it transfixed her worse than the most horrific nightmare that she could imagine. She was only seconds away from having her throat torn out by the creature, and in that desperate instant only one ploy occurred to her that might spare her life, an instinctive reaction as her left leg was the only part of her not presently immobile.

With no thought behind the deed her knee rose up and connected with a soft spot, and all at once her assailant shuddered in automatic reaction, going cross-eyed as the pain slowly filtered its way throughout its nervous system, and for a moment its grip weakened upon Natsumi, who managed to break free long enough to kick it in the chest, landing on her back as she pointed her gun in an upward direction.

"Sayonara Sucker!" she quipped as she sent another steel jacketed slug into the spine of yet another creature, then watched in grim satisfaction as it crumbled to dust in a matter of mere seconds.

"N-Natsumi…" Miyuki weakly gasped as she felt the life being choked out of her, but her own assailant made a critical mistake in turning its attention towards the fate of the other vampire, and with a limberness it never suspected her foot shot up in a straight trajectory kick that caught it along the side of its head and forced it to release her, one second before a second bullet nearly took its head off, and another second later the point became academic.

Natsumi started to rise to her feet, calling out to Miyuki, who was clutching her neck and coughing profusely, but before she could take another step something cold and metallic pressed itself up against her chin, and all at once she knew that there was something here besides vampires who posed a threat to their continued existence.

"Excellent aim, my dear," Sergei remarked in casual regard of her profile, "There are very few marksmen who could fire with that much precision in such close quarters and hit not one target but two…but I think it would be best for everyone if you dropped the weapon now before I give that pretty throat of yours a second mouth."

"Sergei, you swine!" Frank bellowed from where he stood alone above a pile of crumbling ashes.

"Nice to meet you too, old friend," Sergei remarked when he heard the sound of a trigger being cocked and turned his eyes to take notice of Miyuki, who was pointing her own nine millimeter in his direction.

"Let her go!" the normally mild-mannered patrolwoman snarled, "I really mean it!"

"Don't be absurd," Sergei sniffed, "I can slice her head off before you can even pull that trigger, and I will do it too if you don't put that toy away. It can't really hurt me as it did the Goya…"

"Want to bet?" Miyuki hissed, "A nine millimeter can tear through an engine block, at this range it will take your head clean off, and I'm just as good a shot as Miyuki!"

"An interesting boast," Sergei mused, "But are you truly willing to gamble with the lady's life that way? A fraction of an instant too late and you could miss me altogether."

"Natsumi is mine!" Miyuki said coldly, "If you hurt her even slightly then you are dead. Are you really willing to gamble your life away on how fast I can shoot? Just try me! And I don't think you relish being dead that much…do you?"

Sergei scowled at the woman and said, "You make an interesting point. I am not ready to die, let alone at the hands of a mere mortal. However, if you shoot then you know that I will kill her…"

"And if you do that then you know I'll do a whole lot worse than kill you," Frank snarled back, "And you know I will too! You can't die from having your arms ripped out of their sockets, but that just means I can do it and worse on you, over and over for as long as I like, and I'll take great delight in seeing you stay conscious through every second that I work you."

Sergei thought that one over for a second or two before saying, "I propose a compromise. I'll let this lady keep her throat if you put your weapons down and back away. I'll be gone before you even know it, and we can play this over again on another occasion."

"How about if I make a third proposal," said yet another voice from directly behind Sergei.

"W-Whaat…?" the dark haired Immortal began to say when he felt the bite of steel against his neck from two sides, then with a sudden twist those butterfly knives performed a scissors motions that slice the space between second and third vertebrae clean through, and all at once the scimitar fell from nerveless fingers, allowing Natsumi to step away in time to see a headless corpse collapse onto the pavement.

Julian stood there with his twin blades in hand, staring down coldly at the man that he had just killed before looking up at Natsumi and Miyuki and saying, "Please back way…you don't want to be near me when this happens."

"But…" Natsumi gasped when she and Miyuki felt a large hand grip them by their upper arms, then Frank yanked them back out of the way and drew them to the side as something weird began to happen to the body of the fallen Cossack.

To their utter amazement the policewomen saw Sergei's body begin to shimmer with an awful kind of light that played off against the darkness. All at once electrical sparks began to discharge in all directions, followed in turn by actual lightning bolts, which bathed Julian in their terrible reach, the energy arcing from one body to the other as though drawn to the blond man like a lightning rod, the discharges intensifying by the second.

Julian cried out and convulsed as electrical systems all around him began shorting out and Miyuki's engine burst jets of lightning from the hood. The ruined van exploded as its gas engine caught fire, and the sedan itself lit up like a pinwheel. Lighting struck a nearby telephone pole and broke a window across the street, hitting several parked cars that were not involved in the immediate accident and causing several overhead street lamps to explode in a hail of sparks. Another bolt struck the two swords still gripped in Julian's hands as he jerked and spasmed before pointing his blades skyward and causing another electrical arc to be released towards the cloudless heavens.

And throughout all of this, a sense of time itself was on the march, as though many years were flashing by before their eyes like an old video reel set on fast forward. Wars and battles passed them by in the flicker of an eyelash, and history itself was replayed from the battle of Waterloo to the assassination of Tsar Nicolas and all of his family, to the rise of Joseph Stalin and beyond that.

Then at last-an eternity later-the electrical displays died down and the fairy fire no longer appeared to surround the headless body. A few brief sparks died out across the asphalt as Julian slowly fell to his knees, gasping and leaning on his butterfly knives for support, his eyes giving off a residual afterglow for several more seconds.

When at last things were quiet again Frank straightened up and said, "Nice timing. I was starting to worry there that you'd be a second or two shy of making your recovery, old buddy."

Julian gasped before saying, "I…try not to disappoint an audience…old friend…but I confess…this time…I almost enjoyed that…"

Natsumi and Miyuki were silent for several seconds more before the former said, "Okay…what the hell just happened?"

Julian pushed himself back to his feet and sheathed his butterfly knives across his back, then said "Something I regret having to let you witness, Officers. I'm afraid that I will have to rely upon your discretion that you not write up a report about this."

"A report about what?" Miyuki asked in numb fascination.

"Exactly," Frank grimly nodded.

"Miyuki?" Natsumi glanced at her partner.

"I will put it to you this way, Partner," Miyuki said, "Would you like to try explaining this one to the chief?"

Natsumi went pale, "No way!"

"Good call," Frank said as he left their side and hunted down his own motorcycle, which was parked quite some distance away as though deliberately avoiding the fireworks, "Shelly, you still functioning okay?"

"You think I was going to stick around and get fried by the Quickening, Boss?" the motorcycle responded, "No way! You don't pay me enough in lube and oil jobs for that."

Natsumi forced herself to glance at the wreckage and carnage all around them then said, "We'd better come up with something in case the local cops in this burg show up to ask us questions."

"No problems there," Julian replied, "I'll explain what happened. I'm rather good at whipping up convincing stories, and it's not exactly the first time I've had to do this either."

"Yeah, but for now I suggest we shelve this and get back to a place that ought to be fairly save from the Goya," Frank suggested, "Which reminds me…Shelly?"

"Already ahead of you, Boss-man," the motorcycle said even as a faint humming noise drew attentions to the approach of a side-car, which same pulled up alongside the Monster and attached itself with a faint click, converting the motorcycle into a two-seater.

"You mean…ride in that?" Natsumi asked dubiously.

"Sure, you can double-up with your partner," Frank replied, "Julian, you're with me, but watch those hands."

"Not to worry, Frank," Julian smiled, "You're not my type."

"Yeah, and what type are you?" Natsumi asked, "O-Negative?"

"I'm not a vampire, Officer," Julian replied, "I'm a lawyer."

"You mean that there is a difference?" Miyuki asked, then smiled, "Sorry about that. Where did you mean to take us, Doctor Steinberg?"

"Where do you think I mean, Kid?" Frank said as he straddled his bike, even as Miyuki and Natsumi scrunched into the side-car together, and Julian took a seat behind Frank, "We're gonna pay a visit to the Tendos, then we'll try and figure out what else is going on in this burb. After all, the night's still early and there's bound to be things walking around loose at this hour that could give nightmares to the vampires."

"Now isn't that a comforting thought?" Julian asked as Frank started gunning Shelley's engines, and moments later they took their leave of the crime scene, even as the howl of approaching sirens drew upon the scene with police and rescue workers at a loss to explain the nature of this particular altercation…

Continued

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