It's like the saying, when it rains it pours.

And it was such a miserable night. Not only was the rain merciless, but the stench of blood filled the air. Lightning flashed, followed by thunder. The god Thor beat his hammer against the clouds until it felt as the sky itself ripped apart, more rain falling. But this night wasn't different from the rest, though. The past week a serial murderer was enjoying himself to the local churches and their nuns. The scene was almost ordinary: bloody messages written on the walls, Manson-esque, the nun's corpses tried and gagged and violated, the windows shattered to pieces, and the silhouette of two priests standing over the scene.

"Time of death: five hours, twenty-two minutes and sixty five seconds ago." The stoic tone of Father Tres emotionlessly assessed the bodies, walls, and glass together. A click of his tongue came from his counterpart.

"Gee, I'd like to get my hands on this psycho. He wouldn't last two minutes." Father Leon: a rugged individual who has never heard the meaning of body waxing. In order to keep himself from fidgeting, he held his hand at his chin, which he has been doing for the past few minutes. It was an opportune time to come down with the flu for Abel, who really chickened out because of the mess. Not he could blame him, that is. Not to self: fake sick next time.

"Father Leon, please answer me."

The local police kept guard at the entrance. The morgue was ready to come soon, and so Leon and Tres were dispatched to the case. Leon, really didn't want to go, but he knew it would lessen his sentence in prison.

Leon grunted, ignoring Tres, and turned around to read the fifth message written in blood. "Your ending starts now", the priest read out loud. "Wonder what that means," After a pause, he looked towards the android. "Make anything out of that?"

Signals travelled through Tres's mechanical body as fast as the speed of light. " 'Your ending starts now': It could mean the moment of death when all vital signs cease and the body starts decaying." It almost gave Leon the shivers when he talked like that without emotion.

"Ah, I'm sure you can be more poetic than that!" He turned his back on the wall and the android and looked towards the window, stained glass. Beautiful in its lifetime, but now lay broken and useless on the floor. He reviewed the broken glass, when he noticed something perculiar: a small audio tape lay innocent in the shrapnel of reds, blues and yellows.

"Hey Tres, take a look at this," He took a kerchief out of his pocket and picked it up carefully. A white blank label was crookedly stuck on without care with faint eraser marks, indicating erased writing. A clue! And not just any clue - a clue that was different from the corpses, writing and the glass. Now they had something, an audio tape.

The morgue was heard coming in, as the police opened the doors and led them in. In a hurry, Leon wrapped the item in the kerchief and stuffed it in his pocket. One of the police officers, who was annoyed with the perverted father from the start, glared. "Fathers, are you quite done yet?" And not to mention that this officer was female, Leon smirked and winked.

"Don't worry. We've had our fill of gore for tonight. If you have any trouble, call me alright?"

"Father Leon, I hardly see conducting small talk -" The android was cut off by his low chuckle.

"You'd see why if you had hormones. Let's head back, this place is giving me the creeps."

"Positive."

---

The lightning kept the Woman of Steel longing for rest. She sat on her bed, rubbing her weary eyes. Oh it was a terrible night. How can other people sleep in this storm? She looked over on her bedside table at her tranquilizers, meant for stressful times such as these. With a low sigh she picked it up and read the label shortly before putting it back. Caterina couldn't. Wouldn't! At the very least she could have a soothing cup of Kate's tea. Very low, she spoke as if not wanting to disturb herself, though she was wide awake. Kate's hologram flickered, shook even, as she stood waiting for orders.

"It's a terrible night," Kate commented. She turned her hologram head towards the wide picturesque windows that was by Her Eminence's bed. Caterina nodded lightly. "I suppose you haven't called me for friendly chit-chat?"

Knowing Sister Kate meant a soothing nightly cup of tea, she nodded. "And that, too."

In a flash, Kate was gone. Caterina was alone, for now. Tres and Leon were off south, Abel was sick with the stomach flu, William was in Albion, Hugue was missing again, and Sister Esther was sleeping. Which reminded her of why she wasn't sleeping. With a heavy sigh she sat up and looked out the window, trees blowing and swaying accompanied the orchestra of thunder and havy rain. Oh, she knew this would be a long night. And she needed rest, too. Right when she was thinking of all the paperwork that needed her attention, a blur caught the corner of her eye. Caterina's razor-sharp eyes barely caught the shadowy image. Though she was known as the Woman of Steel, she was still, inevitably, human. Her skin began to crawl from the creepy atmosphere encircling her. Could that really be a methuselah? No, it can't be. Wouldn't the guards have caught him?

There it was again. This time it was closer. It was indeed a vampire. The very one who conducted the killings of the last three weeks and earlier today. It paused and looked back at her with luminescent red eyes. Her heart caught in her throat. Caterina slowly stepped away from the window, and towards the door. But it was already too late.

Before she could even make her fourth step, the window crashed in. Caterina struggled to her feet, but was pinned down by her faceless intruder. Wind blew rain into the room, and dozens of leaves and branches invaded. On her stomach, Caterina had trouble breathing by the vampire's weight. As he was pulling on her hair to silence her, thunder sounded even more.

"Who...are you?" The question was fruitless, she knew, but she had to know something! Where was Sister Kate, and where were the guards?!

"Shh, love. If you keep quiet, you'll die nice and quick."

She ground her teeth to keep from aiding to his pleasure. Where in God's Holy name were the guards?! Shouldn't they be here by now!!

Before she could think of another profane thought of the guards, he flipped her over on her back and threw her onto her bed. With a wild murderous smile on the lecher's face, he pinned her down. Caterina fought within her innermost being to keep from screaming. Would it help her siuation? Would it make any difference? It was either die in horrific silence, or live with painful bruises of struggle. She chose the latter.

"Let her go,"

The intruder paused, and turned around. "Me?"

The mysterious voice didn't say anything more. Caterina couldn't see around the vampire, so she went by hope and faith that she would live. Footfalls crunched on the fallen glass.

"I strongly suggest you let go of her." A female robotic-like tone reminded Caterina of a Killing Doll. But without visual, she couldn't judge.

The vampire got off Her Eminence and moved towards the voice. Now she could see. The owner to the voice stood still as a tree. Whomever side this person was on, Caterina thought, hoped that machete was meant for him. She looked serious, but she couldn't tell by the black mask obscuring the face.

"Terran, who do you think you are? Heh!" He wiped his chin from blood he indulged into earlier. The guards were nowhere to be seen, and the blood spat on the floor was probably the only remnant of them.

Her savior said nothing. She kept boring holes into the vampire, causing more anger than mere annoyance. A blade appeared from his left arm.

"I'll give you three seconds to get on your knees!" And as he slowly took considerate steps towards the masked stranger, he raised his blade in hopes to deter the nusiance. "One....two....three!" He rushed at her with all his might, but he suddenly screamed in pain as he fell to the floor. The young woman still stood with her machete up. Here eyes were closed, either in concentration or averting the sight of the severed limb on the carpet pooled in blood.

Caterina couldn't believe what was unfolding before her eyes. She sat up and brought her knees to her chest.

The vampire sat up and looked at what was apart of his shoulder. The masked wonder slowly opened her eyes to glare at the intruder. He took even breaths and glared back at Caterina's heroine. "You bitch! You bitch! You'll pay dearly!" And again he lunged. And again he lost his other arm.

Who is she? Where did she come from? Caterina saw how slowly her vampire intruder died as her heroine stranger disabled, and eventually, killed him with smooth even flicks of her wrist. And now it was just her, and the masked woman.

"Are you injured?" She asked. The tone of her robotic tone almost gave Caterina the chills from the way it echoed. It was so technologically distorted it wasn't a normal robotic tone. Caterina nodded slowly, still not believing what has happened.

"Yes, thank you."

The figure bowed her head. She wore an elegant embellished tunic, red as fingernail polish. Steel metal adorned her feet as a knight's. A military officer's cap sat atop milky white wavy hair. Lastly, a simple black mask with a small gold trim perched her face. And pair of small lips lightly smiled. She turned to jump back out the window, but before Caterina's brain could process the words, she sat on the edge of her bed.

"Who are you?"

She paused and turned her head. "Surely, milady I knew you would ask my name." Her grey eyes softened as Caterina waited for an answer. "Smetana is what I go by."

Lightning flashed, and she was gone.