# 4
By Brian Campo ( bcampo@hotmail.com )
Disclaimer: This is a work of fan fiction. Sansker and all Spawn related characters are owned by Todd McFarlane productions and I do not contest that ownership. This story is in no way official, and should be taken as seriously as kids playing Spawn in their backyards. Please, do not sue me, I am hardly worth it :)
Warning: This story contains harsh language and EXTREMELY graphic violence. If you are easily offended, or think your mom might drop a load of hurt on you for reading this, don't. Consider yourself warned.
-A change of heart part two
Hong Kong- Sansker set Carl and Mark on their own two feet and then turned to watch the Hilton collapse four blocks away. The noise it made was deafening, and the ground shook beneath their feet. A dust cloud rose into the air as the rubble came to rest.
"Well, boys," said Sansker. "we brought down the house."
Carl stared at him straight faced while John laughed at his own joke. He didn't see a lot of humor in the whole situation.
"I thought we were goners that time, John." said Carl.
"Hey," said Sansker, suddenly turning serious. "did I come through for us?"
They stood staring at each other for a full thirty seconds before Carl sighed and then nodded.
"Then I don't want to hear anymore about it. We're alive, which is more than all those fuckers under that building can say."
John started up the street and Carl stayed where he was, staring at the ground. After a minute, he shook his head and followed after John. He was in turn followed by Mark, who looked like he didn't quite understand what had just passed between Carl and John.
He didn't understand the relationship that the two vampires had. Carl wasn't sure he understood it. They had been friends for two hundred and sixty years now, if friendship was what you could call what was between them. That's a long time for two people to be connected. The lines of a relationship can get blurred after all those years. There were times when he felt like a father to John, and then there were other times, like earlier, when he felt like a child being admonished. Several times over the years, they had even stood as brothers, equals. There were times that he hated John Sansker with every fiber of his being. He had thought about leaving John and cutting out on his own many times. He even tried once or twice, but he always ended up coming back. Two hundred and sixty years of bad habits were hard to break.
Carl suspected that he was taking Kasner inc's demise harder than John was. He had thought that they might actually be settling down for once, not moving from one blood bath to the next. Sansker couldn't live like that. He needed the rush of blood in his ears and the pounding in his chest. The whole time he had played the Jan Kasner persona he had been restless, craving the thrill of battle. Since the whole business with Persephone started, Sansker had been the happiest Carl had seen him in years.
Up ahead, John was pulling off his leather jacket and inspecting the holes in the back with a frown on his face. He had recieved the burn marks in his fight with the UN troopers. He cursed and tossed it into an alley as they crossed in front of it. Carl picked up his pace, catching up with Sansker and putting a little space between them and Mark. The kid was trustworthy enough, but since they had only known him for four years, there was naturally a little uncertainty.
"Where are we headed?" asked Carl.
"We need to get a transport of some kind. I'm headed over to the Flesh Pot and I'm going to put some muscle on the little runt until he gives me one."
Carl had learned long ago that if John said he was going to do something, he did it. It may not get done the way you would have liked, but the job got done none the less. If John said he was going to go in and intimidate the Hong Kong mafia into giving him a transport, then by god he was going to go in there and do just that. It was best just to stand back out of the way and wait for the blood and hair to start flying.
"So what is it that has got you so worked up? What is it we are going to check up on?"
Sansker turned his head and made sure Mark was out of hearing distance. Satisfied, he said, "It's my heart."
"You think someone's after it? What makes you think that?"
"It was something Persephone said before she died. I think she was working with someone else to kill me, but I don't think she realised what they were after until I told her about my heart." A fire engine roared past, sirens wailing. It turned up the street toward the Hilton. Sansker watched it for a second and then turned back toward Carl. "A lot of things have been bothering me. The wire we found in her ear. The fact that the Washington DC building was attacked in the middle of the afternoon when Persephone couldn't tolerate sunlight."
"But she signed the job in Washington. Remember, "Liber"? Maybe she wore some kind of protective suit to keep out the sunlight." This was one of the reasons Sansker liked Carl. He played the devil's advocate, and forced John to look a situations from diferent points of view.
"Yeah, I know. I haven't figured out how it all works yet. Something is just not right."
"You think they would go through all that trouble just to get your heart? I'm sure it's good heart and everything, but why would anybody want it?"
"There are plenty of people who would like to run a stake through it. Throw a rock in the air and your sure to hit somebody who doesn't like me. You never know, she may have just been fucking with me, taking one last jab before the lights went out. I'll just feel a lot better when I know it's safe."
"So, where is it?"
"I left it with a girl."
"Ain't that always the case?" said Carl. Right now, they felt like brothers.
Half an hour later, they arrived at the Flesh Pot. It was an old factory that had been converted into a nightclub/bordello. On the sign out front, a hologram of a topless dancer gyrated to a pounding drum rhythm and a screeching guitar. Neon signs depicting various sexual positions flashed on and off in various colors. This was where you came when the world frowned on your fetish. Inside those walls, if you had the money, your every dream could come true.
John remembered seeing a commercial for this place. It had a really snappy jingle done to the tune of an old b-52's song. He found himself humming it as he crossed the street.
"Flesh Pot, baby, Flesh Pot,
Flesh Pot, baby, Flesh Pot,
Flesh Pot, bayeeebeeee."
Outside of the building, there was a line of people waiting to get into the club. They were mostly humans but John saw some vampires mixed in with them.
Carl elbowed him and then pointed up at the roof of the building. They could see a white transport parked up there.
"Very nice." said John.
Sansker walked up to the front door, the people waiting in line cursing at him and telling him to get in line. He replied to them with his middle finger and kept on going.
"Do you know who that was?" he heard one of them say behind them.
The bouncer at the door recognized him right away. "Mr Kasner! What a pleasure!"
"Don't you watch the news, son? It's Sansker now. Is the boss in?"
"I'm not sure, Mr. Sansker. You might check with Mr. Lizer. He's the one up on the catwalk."
Sansker looked where the bouncer was pointing and saw a muscular man clad in leather standing on a metal catwalk that crossed above the dance floor. He was surveying the club below with a watchful eye.
"Thank you." he said, and walked into the club. The bouncer looked at the guns that Mark and Carl were carrying, but didn't say anything. Guns were a pretty common site in the Flesh Pot.
Inside, it was very crowded. A band was playing technothrash on the stage, and the dance floor was a writhing mass of flesh. Bamboo cages hung from the ceiling and scantily clad women danced inside them. One of the women was pouring a bottle of what looked like blood down her chest. It didn't smell like blood though, and Sansker guessed it was just a colored sugar syrup. Several men were standing below the bamboo cage letting the stuff pour into their mouths. All of this visual and audible stimulation, which would have aroused a normal man, only served to make Sansker hungry.
He skirted the edges of the dance floor, avoiding the thrashing bodies there. The staircase leading up to the catwalk was on the other side of the club, next to the bar. Upon seeing Sansker, many of the vampires in the crowd flashed the Vampire Power symbol at him and grinned. He nodded to them in reply. The UN could say what they wanted about him, but he was still very popular with the vampire crowd. He had given them a taste of something they had never had before. Normal lives.
A familiar scent stopped him in his tracks. It smelled of fire, brimstone and and a touch of raunchy B.O. He turned around, sniffing, trying to detect where the smell was coming from. His nose lead him toward the bar, where he homed in on a scrawny teenager that looked way to young to be in a bar. The boy had shoulder length blond hair that was in desparate need of washing. His arms were thin sticks sticking out from his off-white t-shirt, and there were scabs on his elbows. His face sported a impressive patch of peach fuzz. John sat down on the stool next to him and looked at him intently.
"Violator?" asked John, uncertain.
The boy turned toward him, his eyes a little glassy from the whisky bottle he was working on. His eyes widened when he realized who he was looking at.
"Heeeeeeeeeeyyy," said the boy, pointing his finger at John. He snapped his fingers a couple of times as he tried to find John's name in his alchohol stewed brain."Sansker. Hey, man, how ya doin'?" His voice was slightly slurred.
"Not bad. Hot damn, it's been a long time. You look..."
Violator held his hand up to stop John. "I know, I know, don't say it. Healthy, right?"
Sansker was actually thinking scrawny, but he said "Well, yeah."
"It's this new body I'm using. I can't get it to hold a pound."
"It's probably got a high metabolism."
"Yeah, there's that. It's also all this fucking health food. You can't get a decent meal anymore. Everything has been drained of all the fat and cholesterol, you know, the good shit. Man, I'd kill for a greasy burger."
"Ah, you'd kill for anything, Vi. It must be very hard on you." said John, his face the perfect picture of sympathy. "It is good to see you again. Last time I saw you was when we whacked that heavy metal guy, what was his name?"
Violator scrunched his eyes close in concentration. "Uhhhhhhhhhh, Lenny something."
"Yeah," said John. "Lenny. Lenny Manson."
"King of the Zombies!" said John and Violator at the same time, and they started laughing.
"God, he was an asshole." said Violator, still chuckling. "Where did a zombie get that kind of ego?"
Sansker leaned forward, grinning. "Remember how pissed he was when he woke up?"
"Hey!" said Violator in his best Lenny Manson impression. "What the hell did you guys do with the rest of my body?!"
Sansker slapped his knee, and guffawed so loudly that people down the bar turned to stare at him. "And you were dancing around singing, "I'm just a gigalo."
Violator waved his hands in the air and sang, "Cause I ain't got no booooooody!"
John slapped him on the back and the two of them laughed together for a minute before they could get theirselves under control. "Man," said Sansker. "Those were the good old days. Where did they go?"
"They went out with Pork Rinds." said Violator. He closed his eyes for a second and looked like he was savoring the idea of Pork Rinds.
"So, what are you doing here?" asked John.
"My brother works here, so I get free drinks. He's a body guard."
"Oh, yeah? Which one is he?"
Violator pointed up at the man standing on the catwalk.
"Well, are you going to be pissed if I work him over a little? I'm here on business."
"Hell, no, give him a couple for me. He cut me off earlier."
John got up from his stool and said, "Well, I gotta go take care of this stuff. It sure has been good seeing you, Vi. Takes me back."
"Yeah, us old dogs have to stick together." said Violator.
"See you around." said John, and then turned toward the staircase. He stopped and came back. "Hey, you know what? I've been buying up companies left and right and I seem to remember I aquired an old twinkie factory in the states some where. Seems like it still had a lot of product left in there. They'd be two hundred years old, but you know what the shelf life on those things are."
Violator licked his lips and said, "Don't tease me like this, John."
"Let me look into it," said John. "if I got something, I'll let you know. Maybe we can work something out."
"Yeah that would be great."
John asked for a pen from the bartender and wrote down a phone number on a napkin.
"This is my lawyer's number." he said. "I keep in contact with him so he will know where I am."
"Thanks." said Violator and he tucked the napkin into his jeans pocket. "Take care of yourself. Don't do anything that I wouldn't do." He smiled slyly and his eyebrows bobbed up and down.
John walked away again, this time heading up the stairs. As Carl walked by, he nodded at Violator.
"How's it going, Carl?"
"Same old, same old." said Carl as he followed his boss up the stairs.
Up above, John was approaching Mr. Lizer. The big bouncer turned to look John over and in a deep voice asked,"Can I help you?"
"I'd like to see the Man." said John, not liking the way the bouncer was sizing him up. He started to walk past him, and Lizer put one hand on his chest to stop him.
"He's busy at the moment. You will have to make an appointment, Mr. -?"
"Sansker." said John, looking down at the hand that was touching him and trying to decide how he wanted to tear it off.
"Well, Mr Sansker, he doesn't want to be disturbed. If you leave your number, I can have him get a hold of you later." He began to push John back ward, back down the metal catwalk. John dropped one foot back to brace himself and the lunged forward against Lizer. He punched the bouncer in the nose, causing him to stumble backwards. Lizer caught ahold of the railings and stopped himself from falling all together.
"I'd like to see him, and I'd like to see him now."
Lizer growled and pulled himself to his feet. "Maybe I'm just not making myself clear."
Here it comes, thought John. This was where Lizer showed his true form.
The bouncer's body swelled, shredding his clothes and doubling in size in half a second. A second later, it had doubled again. The catwalk moaned beneath thier feet under the strain of the added weight. Hair sprouted all over Lizer's body and a horn thrust from the top of his spine. His forehead sloped down and his jaw stetched out from his face. Lizer was short for Vandalizer.
The phlebiac demon took a step toward John, dwarfing him with his massive body. He opened his mouth and roared. John nearly gagged at the smell of the demon's breath.
"PIIIIIISSSSSS OOOOOFFFFFFFFF!!!!" roared Vandalizer, his yellow teeth only inches from John's head.
"How rude." said John, and he snapped his hands into Vandalizer's mouth. He grabbed a tonsil in each hand and yanked them back out. Vandalizer gagged as the insides off his mouth were pulled and stretched out. John turned and quickly tied the tonsils in a knot around the railiing of the catwalk.
"Ack" said Vandalizer, clawing at the knot that held him.
"I'm just going to go on in." said John. He reached out and gently strummed the stretched out tonsil. It twanged.
"Ack." said Vandalizer.
"Uh, oh." said John, realizing that the demon was still blocking thier path. He shrugged and hefted Vandalizer over the railing, where he fell a couple of feet and then hung, swinging. People below were looking up now, and more bouncers were starting up the stairs. John turned to Mark and Carl.
"Why don't you boys stay here and make sure that we aren't disturbed." he said.
"Sure thing." said Mark as he and Carl pulled their rifles off of their backs and turned to face the staircase. John walked the rest of the way down the catwalk to a metal door that stood there. He opened the door quietly and stepped into the room.
Inside, there was a very lavish office, with a large oak desk, refridgerator, big screen tv, the works. Large windows gave a very nice view of Hong Kong. In the distance, John could see flashing lights and hover crafts circling what used to be the Hilton. The large high backed chair at the desk was turned away from John, and he heard a muffled giggling sound coming from the other side of it.
"Smut thinks there may be employment possibilities for you here, M'Lady." said a high squeaky voice.
"You really think so, Mr Smut?" asked a young women's voice.
John cleared his throat and a small head looked out from behind the chair. "Oh, shit." it said, and disappeared. A second later there was the sound of a zipper zipping and the chair spun around revealing it's tiny occupant.
"Hello, Mr Sansker. Did Mr Lizer show you in?" said Smut, a furry demon who stood only two feet tall. He was wearing a black tuxedo, and the hair on his head had been styled to accent his horns. His face was catlike, and his whiskers were twitching nervously. This was the head of the Hong Kong mafia.
"No," said John. "He was occupied."
Behind Smut, a very leggy blonde stood up, wiping off her mouth and pulling down the hem of her very short miniskirt. "Do you need anything else, Mr Smut?" she asked.
"No." said Smut. "You can go back downstairs, Angie-dear."
The girl sauntered past John, looking him over with interest. She bumped a hip into him and disappeared out the door. John wished he could see her face when she saw what he had done to Vandalizer.
"What can Smut do for thee?" asked Smut.
John turned to him and saw the demon had one hand under his desk. He could hear a quiet clicking sound. Smut was setting off an alarm, no doubt. It didn't matter. There was only one door into this room and his boys had that guarded.
"I need to borrow that very nice transport I saw parked on the roof."
Smut stared at him for a second, and then said, "Smut wonders if thou hast lost thy marbles? You come in his place uninvited and asketh to borrow Smut's transport?"
"I could use some cash, too. All my credit is pretty shitty at the moment."
"Someone has thumped thy gourd too roughly, in Smut's huimble opinion." said the little demon. "Go fucketh yourself most roughly, fine sir."
John got a very disappointed look on his face. He put one foot on the edge of the desk and shoved. It slid easily across the room, tearing up the carpet. John reached down and grabbed Smut by his horns. The little demon kicked his feet and swung his arms as he was lifted into the air.
"Which one do I tear off first?" asked John.
"You wouldn't dare hurt Smut's lovely head ornaments!" screeched Smut.
Sansker put pressure on one of them, recieving a scream from Smut. He grinned, enjoying himself. "It would only be a loan, Smut. I'd pay you back."
"I swear to M'nuxtulu that if you don't unhand me and put me down, I'll have thy ass ground into hamburger." said the little demon.
"Do these grow back?" asked John, who could feel the horn starting to splinter under the pressure."
"All right, all right!" shouted Smut. "You have but to name it and Smut will provide!"
John set him down and the demon scurried across the floor to a safe in the corner. "Son of a bitch." muttered Smut angrily as he rubbed his wounded horn.
"The keys to the transport and the money, Smut." said John.
Smut continued his cursing as he turned and began to open the safe's combination lock. John stood over him, making sure he didn't try anything stupid. There were shouts and several gunshots from outside and Smut smiled up at John.
"Smut thinks that his guards are coming to get you, John."
"Shut up and open the safe, Pip-squeak."
Smut fairly fumed at being called that. He huffed and turned back to the lock. A second later he popped it open. Inside, there were stacks of cash tied in neat bundles and a stack of classic porno mags. The top magazine was a special Playboy issue featuring the girls of Elysium.
"Now the keys to the transport, Smut."
Smut reached into the breast pocket of his tux and pulled out a key card, which he handed to John. John crouched down next to the safe and began pulling out stacks of cash from the safe, setting them on the floor next to him. When he had the safe emptied, he waved his hand at the safe, as if inviting Smut to step inside. The little demon began to panic.
"Please, have a heart, sir! Smut does not like little spaces!"
"I am completely heartless." said John and pushed Smut into the safe. There were more gunshots outside, and Mark stuck his head in the door.
"We got problems, John. That demon guy just got loose, and there are a bunch of guards trying to get up here."
"How did he get loose? " asked John. He kicked the safe closed and started for the door.
"He just kinda tore himself loose." said Mark
"Where did he go?" asked John, and a second later he got his answer. The floor under his feet buckled and he felt himself being thrown up into the air. The Phlebiac Demon burst through the floor, bellowing in rage. John landed on Smut's desk with a crash, and rolled off the other side of it.
Vandalizer pulled himself free of the floor and started after John. The torn ends of his tonsils hung out each side of his mouth, bleeding green blood. He had a wild look in his eyes that was half rage and half pain. He held his arms out wide and rushed at John.
Sansker grabbed the edge of the desk in front of him and flipped it up onto his shoulders. He threw it across the room, catching the demon in the chest and driving him back. The weight of the desk shoved Vandalizer out the window. The demon pinwheeled his arms, trying to catch onto anything to keep himself from falling. His fingers just barely caught the edge of the window sill and after a second he started to pull himself back up. John stepped the window and looked down at him.
Vandalizer opened him mouth and roared.
"You know, half your problems would be solved if you would just keep your mouth shut." John told him. He turned, picked up the safe, and dropped it down Vandalizer's open mouth. The demon's eyes bugged as the full weight of the safe hit the bottom of his belly. His fingers slipped from the window sill and he fell to the street below. If you listened very closely, you could hear Smut screeching in terror from within the safe. Down below there was a thunderous crash as they hit bottom.
John looked down at the damage he had wrought for a couple seconds and then went back to the task at hand. He scooped up a couple bundles of cash as he walked past them and tucked them into his shirt. He stepped through the door way and out onto the catwalk where an all out fight was in progress. Carl and Mark had used up all their ammo and were now beating back Smut's goons with their rifle butts. John pushed past them and tore into the closest guard with his claws. He threw the body over the side and moved forward to meet the next attack. He was pleasantly surprised to find one goon standing in front of another. He was going to get the chance to try something.
He punched his hand through the first guard and grabbed the one standing behind him. He gave him a good yank and pulled him back through the small hole had made in the first guard. He turned and grinned at Carl. "Pretty good, huh?"
Carl rolled his eyes in reply. The man who had been pulled through his partner was still screaming when John threw them over the side of the catwalk. More guards were coming up the staircase and more were taking shots at the vampires from below. .
"Hell with this." said Sansker. "Over the side, boys" He grabbed the railing and vaulted over it, dropping to the dance floor below. Carl and Mark landed next to him a second later, and threw down their empty weapons. The club was nearly empty now, since most of the patrons had made a run for it when the shooting began. Up above, the guards were trying to get turned around so they could come back down the stairs. John whipped his head back and forth, looking for a way to the roof. He caught sight of Violator, who was still sitting at the bar nursing his whiskey. John ran to him and said, "Hey, Vi, how do you get to the roof?"
Violator pointed at a door on the west side of the building and started laughing as the guards coming down the stairs tripped and tumbled into one big entangled pile.
"I say the good old days are back, John!" he called after Sansker.
"Let me know when they start." said John and he went through the door Violator had pointed out to him. It was a stairwell he found himself in. Taking steps four at a time, he headed up.
"Did Smut say you could use his transport?" Carl called out behind him.
"Yeah, he was sympathetic to our situation." he held up the keycard so that Carl could see it. "He also loaned us some cash with no interest."
"I tell you, John, you got a way with people."
They reached the top of the stairs and slammed through the exit door and out onto the roof. Sansker whistled when he saw the transport. It was a beauty, the twenty-third century version of a limousine.
"Uh, John, I think we should get going." said Mark "I hear the goon squad coming up the stairs."
"Yeah, sure." said John, and he handed Carl the key card. They hurried to get the hatch open and then rushed inside as the first of Smut's men came through the door on the roof. Mark shut the transport's hatch while Carl went to start up the engines. The guards began firing at the hull of the transport. Smut had spared no expense in armoring the craft, so the energy blasts were bouncing harmlessly away. The engines began to whine, and the pitch escalted as the craft wound up to full power. Carl pressed the throttle, and the craft lifted vertically off of the roof. Down below, the guards were lowering their weapons.
"Where to?" asked Carl.
"Oh, I hear Mexico is nice this time of year. Let's go there." John plopped down in the passenger seat and put his feet up on the dash. Carl turned the transport east and they rocketed away.
A few seconds later, a large brown transport flew in from the direction of the Hilton. It circled the Flesh Pit twice, and then turned to follow the white transport into the night.
*Special thanks to Jae Thomas this issue for letting me use his Fan Fic avatar Violator and for helping me make sure I wrote him right. I recommend that you read his Violator 2200 a.d. series when it starts.*
The Snake Pit
I welcome all letters and criticisms. Sound off if you got a pair, I want to hear what you think!
And to Vibrator; I´ve just read first issue of your sansker story and I loved it. Nice heart transplant!
Isn´t it really issue #3. It seems to me there´s a continuty from your other sansker story. I would like
to see some drawings of your characters but more important is issue #4. Go on you lazy bum I want
the next chapter soon!!
B Better
When you're right, you're right. This is the thrid issue in the whole series, but only the first issue of this miniseries, which should run five or six issues. I hope I didn't confuse anyone. If I did, read Sansker 2200a.d. first and then this miniseries. A Change of Heart starts right where 2200a.d. left off. Thanks for the nice compliments and I'm spitting these out a quick as I can.
Yeah, the transplant was pretty cool. You'll never see that on E.R.
Oki, I've read the first part now... really good. No, I mean it.
_Really_ good. Just two small notes:
1) You used my name! That was really cool! "Jan" Kasner... (Although,
Jan Kanser would've been even cooler ^_^ )
2) It sounded a bit funny when Carl said to Mark (in the beginning) that
"You're alive". As if vampires "lived"... hehe
VhD
Hey, I didn't know your name was Jan! Cool! The last name Kanser may turn up sometime, I'm always trying different variations of Sansker for his various aliases. As for the living thing, I haven't completely thought out my stand on Vampires yet, but I don't think they are dead. Sansker's heart, where ever it is, is still beating, so he might be alive.
I'll try an approach many writers don't use, "Uh, I don't know"
Thanks everybody for writing, your letters keep me writing,
Brian
Well, that's another issue, thanks for taking the time to read it. As always, if you liked this story, you might like my others, check them out at my site, Bad Monkey Comics!!!
If you have any comments or cursewords, e-mail me at bcampo@hotmail.com I welcome all comments and criticisms, but ask if you are going to tell me I suck, tell me why I suck (yeah, that sounded funny to me too.)
By the way, I will probably print any letters I get next issue, so if you don't want yours printed, let me know.