# 11
by Brian Campo (bcampo@hotmail.com)
This is a work of fan fiction. The Savage Dragon and all related characters are owned by Erik Larsen, and I do not contest
that ownership. This story is in no way official and it should not be taken as such. All characters in this story not owned by Mr.
Larsen are owned by me, though I would gladly loan them out if asked nicely.
John Sansker is owned either by Alan Moore or TMP productions, I don't know which. Anyway, he's not mine and I don't think that he is. Blah, Blah, Blah. . .
Violator I know for certain is owned by TMP and that's cool with me. Just don't sue me, please. I'm just a poor boy and I wouldn't be worth the trouble.
Warning: This story may contain graphic violence, sexual situations and harsh language. If you shouldn't be reading it, don't.
Visit the Dragon 2200 home page for back issues and covers (http://www.angelfire.com/or/icffa/dragonifshome.html)
Vampire Nation: A Dragon/Sansker 2200 crossover.
Part Three
From their position on the third floor of a high rise Maxine and Crusader had a clear view of the plaza and building at Kenpo Square. Crusader scanned the area with binoculars, locating the defenses and calculating the risks. Things didn't look good. The vampires had prepared themselves for an invasion. First off, they had a ring of sandbag barricades all the way around the building with machine gun nests every twenty feet or so. Concrete highway dividers had been placed in front of the sandbags, making the wall even more impregnable. There were also machine guns to be seen sticking out of the second story windows of the building and snipers on the roof. No doubt there was a small army of vampires hiding down behind those barricades and who knows what other surprises they had waiting in store for them. Grenades, probably. If they went anywhere near that place they would be in a world of trouble and he told Maxine as much.
"Maybe you could stay behind me when we rush them and let me take the heat from the guns." she suggested.
Crusader shook his head. "That's not such a good idea. With that many guns you'd be on your ass in a couple of seconds and I'd be a sitting duck."
Maxine knew he was right. She remembered when they had arrested the Campfire Girls back in Chicago and she had taken the full brunt of a machine gun blast at point blank range. She had been thrown, literally, head over heels.
"So, what do you suggest?" she asked.
Crusader didn't say anything for a moment as he continued to study the vampire's defensive layout. The building was only five stories tall so it probably wouldn't be too much trouble to find the vampires they wanted, once they got inside. Judging from the amount of activity he was seeing in the windows, it looked like the vampires were camped out on the fourth and fifth floors. Getting inside was the trick, and it was going to take a pretty good trick to pull it off.
"I think that we need to make a grand entrance. Something with some sizzle." he said. "You remember that ambulance we saw crashed about half a mile back?"
She nodded in reply.
"Let's head back there." he told her.
Quietly and quickly, they retraced their route back to the overturned hover ambulance. Crusader tapped on it's gas tank and asked Maxine if she thought that she could carry it. It was a fifty gallon tank and filled it would have weighed around four hundred pounds.
"I could carry the whole damn ambulance if you needed me to." Maxine told him.
"Excellent." he said. "Why don't you try to get it off of there without breaking it while I find some more of the things we need?"
"Sure thing." said Maxine and she did as she was told, grabbing a hold of the metal bands that held the gas tank to the bottom of the vehicle and tearing them loose from the frame. When she got them off, she lowered the tank down to the ground, noting that the tank was about three quarters of the way full.
Crusader had disappeared up and over the ambulance into it's cab, and she could hear him banging and yanking things around in there. She climbed up on top and looked down through the door where she could see him ripping at the seat covers. He was removing the covers and then tearing out all the foam rubber stuffing material. He had a good sized pile of it at his feet.
"You need any help?" she asked.
He stopped after the next rip and looked up at her. "Yeah, sure." he said. "Take these." He reached back between the ambulance's bucket seats and pulled out a silver canister with valves on top. "Careful." he said when he handed her the canister. "That's compressed oxygen. It can explode if you drop it."
"All right." said Max as she took it from him. Crusader handed her three more of them which she took down to the ground and laid beside the gas tank. He followed a few moments later with a large supply of foam rubber wrapped in one of the seat covers. He squatted down beside the gas tank and began shredding the pieces of foam rubber and dropping it into the sheared off pipe sticking out of it. Maxine did the same thing he did.
"What exactly is it that were making here?" she asked.
"Napalm." said Crusader.
She paused for a second, more than a little shocked. She had heard about the stuff and the damage it used to do back when it was legal to use it in war. It was nasty shit.
"Are you sure this is going to work?"
He shrugged. "The recipe is pretty simple. Take gasoline, add styrofoam or foam rubber, allow to dissolve, pour on someone you don't like, ignite. The center piece of any party."
He seemed to know what he was talking about. She kept quiet as they finished with the foam rubber. When they were done he asked her to crimp off the the end of the pipe. She did so, bending it in half and effectively sealing it off. Crusader removed the sword scabbards from his back and separated the canvass straps from them. He used these to strap the oxygen tanks around the outside of the gas tank, cinching them tightly into place. He asked for the knife belt that Maxine had buckled around her thigh and all the grenades she had left on her person. She willingly handed them over and Crusader added them to the bomb, tying each end of the knife strap to the straps holding the oxygen tanks. Between the two of them they came up with nine grenades, which he clipped to the strap.
Once finished, he stood up and took a step back, surveying his handiwork. "How far do you think that you could throw that?" he asked her.
Maxine sized it up and hazarded a guess at about two hundred yards if she really tried, maybe farther if she could do a shot put type spin with it..
"Oh, we're only going to want to throw about half of that distance." he told her. "Any farther and it will go off before it gets close to those barricades. Any shorter and I'm afraid that we'll be in the blast radius, and we sure as hell don't want to be there."
Maxine nodded in agreement to that.
"Well. what do you think, Chalmers? You about ready to do this thing?"
"The sooner we do it the sooner it'll be over." she replied. She squatted down and lifted the bomb up and then after standing, she shouldered it. "You're going to have to cover my ass." she said. "If anyone shoots at us on the way I'm going to be a little busy trying not to drop this thing."
"Don't worry." he told her. "I got your back." He picked up one of the swords and stuck it at an angle down through his belt, just in case he needed it later. He asked Maxine if she wanted the other one, but she declined. "Suit yourself." he told her and tossed the other sword under a nearby dumpster.
They made their way back to Kenpo Square and stopped at the mouth of an alley across from the front of the building.
"All right, listen up. We're going to have to make this quick." he said. "You step out and get ready to throw. I'll yank the pins and say, "Go." and then you let it rip. Remember, try to drop it right behind the barricades."
She nodded and took a deep breath.
"One more thing." said Crusader. "Once we're inside, we're taking the leaders alive. Don't kill them."
Max had to suppress a laugh. She had thought that she would have to tell him the same thing and had just been waiting for the right time to say it. Let's face it, he loved killing vampires and she was afraid that he would just waste the leaders of the vampire nation, never even trying to capture them alive. "Sounds good." she told him with a smile. "Let's do it."
She stepped out into the middle of the alley, planted one foot behind her and lifted the bomb up over her head and behind her back. "Ready." she said.
Crusader stepped up behind her, stuck a finger through the ring on each grenade and yanked them out simultaneously.
"Go!"
She heaved the bomb forward and released it into the air. It flew skyward, wobbling from the liquid sloshing around inside. It reached the top of it's arc and then began to descend. It was going to land right behind the barricade.
"Nothing but net." Maxine whispered.
Shouts broke out as the vampires crouching behind the barricades noticed the incoming object. Just twenty feet above the ground the grenades went off. An instant later the oxygen tanks and the gas tank exploded. Suddenly everything was bright yellow and a thunderous boom shook nearby windows. The contents of the gas tank splattered outward in a wide burning circle. One of the Oxygen tanks had only been punctured, and when the wreckage of the bomb hit the ground the escaping air sent it spinning in circles, spreading the burning napalm even more. It plowed through the vampire ranks, running them over and leaving them burning in it's wake. Screams filled the night as vampires jumped up over the barricade, trying to escape the burning nightmare. There was no putting the fire out as they beat helplessly at the flames on their bodies. Gun fire chattered, but no one was firing a gun. The heat of the fire was setting the bullets off. Vampires were being shot down by their own ammunition.
Crusader sprinted from the alley and across the plaza with Maxine close behind. No one tried to stop them, they were too distracted by the napalm that seemed to be burning everything in sight. They skirted the burning circle and ran toward the nearest window on the bottom floor of the building. Crusader pulled a forty five and shot holes in the glass before he went crashing through it. He hit the ground and rolled to his feet. A quick leap put him behind a cement column, giving him cover while he assessed what the situation was here in the lobby of the building. Maxine came through the same window that he had jumped through and kept her feet when she landed. She spotted Crusader hiding behind a column and did the same thing, jumping behind another column.
Crusader stuck his head out from behind the column and gave the lobby a quick once over. There wasn't shit to be seen in the way of defenses. No guards, nothing. He looked over at Maxine with a questioning look on his face. She took a quick look around and shook her head, no. She hadn't seen anything, either.
Surely the vampires hadn't been relying only on the defenses outside. That was pure stupidity.
He cautiously began to step out from behind the column when he heard running footsteps from the other side of the lobby. Quickly reversing direction, he stepped out of the other side of the column with his gun raised. An albino dressed in white denim pants and a t-shirt was coming his way. He was sporting a shoulder holster much like Crusader's, made to hold two automatics. The guns were in his hands.
Crusader squeezed off a shot at him, but suddenly the albino wasn't there anymore. One second he was in plain sight, the next he was gone. There was nothing he could have jumped behind, he just disappeared right before Crusader's eyes.
Maxine heard a popping sound to her left and started to turn toward it. Something was jammed roughly into her ear and then there was an explosion that snapped her neck violently to the right. Her eyes rolled up in her head as she spun and fell to the ground.
The sound of the gunshot got Crusader's attention and he looked towards where Maxine had been standing. The albino was there. He had just shot Maxine. She was falling to the ground with blood squirting in a high arc from her ear. Crusader fired at the albino, but again, he suddenly disappeared. There was a popping sound behind him and Crusader sidestepped and spun. A gun roared and bullets smacked into the concrete that Crusader had just been standing next to. He kept moving, searching for a target at the same time. He spotted the albino about four feet away and opened up with his gun, getting off a couple of shots. The albino jumped to his left and winked out of existence. More popping sounds, right behind Crusader this time. He turned, drawing his other automatic as he did. The albino was in the air, in mid kick. The kick connected with Crusader's back and it knocked him forward. He stumbled forward, trying at first to keep his balance, but quickly gave up on that. Crusader balled up and went into a roll, coming out of it with both guns blazing. The albino disappeared, narrowly avoiding the bullets. Crusader didn't wait for the popping sounds this time, he just turned the instant the albino disappeared. He saw him reappear, empty air one instant a man there the next. Crusader jumped towards him, trying to get a hold of him with his arms. He felt the barrel of a gun get pressed in between the plates of armor on his thigh as they struggled and it went off. Ignoring the pain, he focused on keeping a hold of the albino. He circled one arm around his head, putting him in a headlock. He brought his other hand up and shoved his gun into his gut. He pulled on the trigger twice. The albino disappeared from his grasp but a spray of blood showered down over Crusader. He had got the bastard, he was sure of it.
There was a popping sound across the room, behind some chairs in what looked like the waiting room part of the lobby. He limped over toward it, as quickly as he could. The albino came up over the back of the chairs, clutching his gut with one hand and his gun in the other. Blood soaked his shirt and the front of his jeans. Crusader dove to the ground and rolled as the albino shot at him. He fired back, shooting at the man's legs that he could see from beneath the chairs. The albino took rounds in the knees and he stumbled backwards and fell on his back. Crusader emptied the rest of both clips onto him, hitting him every time. The room became very quiet all of a sudden. He waited for a moment, seeing if the albino was going to move again. He didn't.
The whole gun battle had lasted less than a minute.
Breathing heavily, he rolled onto his back and fished out fresh clips for his guns from his utility belt.
"Chalmers!" he shouted out. There was no reply. He sat up and used one of the chairs to help pull himself to his feet. Blood ran down his leg as he limped his way over to Maxine's still form. "Hey, kid, you still with me?"
There was a pool of blood around her head, coming from out of her ear. He flopped down beside her and gave her a good shake. "Chalmers! Come on, girl, snap out of it."
She moaned. "What happened?" she managed to mumble.
"You got shot in the ear. Can you move?"
She struggled to sit up but ended up falling forward on her face. "I'm dizzy." she said.
"It's probably your balance." he told her. "Everything that controls it is in your inner ear."
"It should be healing." she told him. "There's something else wrong."
"The bullet is still in there, most likely. It's keeping it from healing properly."
"Well, I can't even get up. How am I supposed to help you?"
"You're not." said Crusader. "I'm just going to have to go in alone from here."
"No!" said Max. "There's no way you can do this alone. You're going to need me up there."
"There's no point in arguing this, girl. You can't even get to your feet. You can't walk, then you can't fight."
"Maybe if you helped me walk I could still go up with you." said Maxine. "You just can't take them all on by yourself."
"I can't support you and fight at the same time. You'd only slow me down and get us both killed. Look, if you really want to help me, then stay here. Just stay here and shoot anybody that comes in. Got it?"
"Fuck!" said Maxine. She didn't like it, but she knew he was right. She just felt bad that she couldn't in on the action.
"By the way," said Crusader. " do you have any tampons?"
She rolled over and gave him a puzzled look. "Any what?"
"Tampons. You seem like a girl that likes to be prepared so I figured you might have some."
After a moment she said, "In my back pack."
Crusader opened up her pack and dug through it until he found them and then tore the plastic covering off of one with his teeth. He tore his pants open around the bullet wound in his leg and pushed the tampon down into the bullet hole. It swelled up almost immediately, filling the hole and stopping the bleeding. Max watched with amazement.
"Where did you learn that?"
"That's what they were originally used for back in the two big ones. Want one for your ear?"
She laughed and said, "No thanks."
"Well," he said as he shakily pulled himself to his feet. "I better get going. Keep your wits about you and remember to aim for the heart."
"I will." she told him. "Good luck, sir. It's been an honor fighting by your side."
He grinned down at her and said, "You, too. You're going places, Chalmers. You take care of yourself." He limped away from her, headed for the door that lead to the stair case. He started up the stairs but stopped about two flights up. There were bodies laying on the stairs, and they were vampires by the smell of them. Their hearts had been torn out. It looked like someone else had already been this way and was clearing the road for him. He smiled. It was great having friends you could count on, even if they were blood sucking feigns from hell. This all might work out after all.
There was no way that he was going to make it. She knew that. He was wounded and he was only human, and he was going up against who knows how many vampires. And there was nothing she could do. She thought about that for a moment. Maybe there was nothing that she could do, but she could radio back to base and maybe they could send help in time.
They had been instructed to observe strict radio silence through out the mission, but from what she saw, the mission was fucked anyway. They should at least know that the mission had failed.
Max clutched at the column next to her and secured a grip on it. She used it to pull herself up to a sitting position and pulled her radio from her belt.
She turned it on and said, "K-mart, this is Blue Light special, come in."
For a few moments there was only silence and then a voice said, "Blue Light special, this is Colonel Tibbets. Identify yourself. Over."
"My name is Maxine Chalmers. Over"
"Very good. What is the status of your mission, Chalmers? Over."
"Not good, sir. There are only two members of the invasion team believed to be alive at this point, myself and Crusader. We've made it into the building at Kenpo Square, but we are both wounded. Over"
"Are you armed, Chalmers? Over."
"Yes, sir. I have a side arm and plenty of ammo for it. Over."
"Is Crusader there with you? Over."
"No, sir. He's gone up to try to capture the leaders alone. Over."
Only silence for a moment from the other end.
"Chalmers?"
"Yes, sir?"
"We have a situation here. We have reason to believe that Crusader is not really Crusader. We think he might even be a vampire. Over."
Maxine's eye's widened and her breath caught in her throat. Then her shock turned to disbelief. "That's impossible." she stammered. "I've personally witnessed him killing hundreds of vampires since we got here. Besides that he also has a wound in his leg, and it's not healing like a vampire's wounds do. There's no way he's a vampire, sir. You must be mistaken. Over"
"Here's the deal. We found the body of a man that we believe to be the real Crusader stuffed into Crusader's locker. Even if he is not a vampire, it still leads us to believe that he is working for them. Maybe he is trying to sabotage the mission. There are only two of you left, after all. Over"
Max thought about it and had to agree, something was not right. But it just didn't make sense. Why would someone sneak their way into the UN invasion team and kill vampires the whole way into the city unless he was on their side? "Maybe he's trying to help." she said.
"We can't risk it. The mission is being scrubbed. We want you to get out of that building. There are planes on the way, and they are going to blow it all to hell."
"Don't do that! Please! We don't know for sure what's going on."
"The planes arrive in fifteen minutes, Chalmers. Clear out. Over and out."
"No, goddammit! You can't fucking do this!" she shouted into the radio. Her tirade was met with silence.
"Fuck!" she yelled and she tossed the radio across the room. How the hell was she supposed to get out of here? She couldn't stand up with out falling over, for christ's sake. And she could leave him to die, no matter what they were saying. There must be some kind of mistake, the man she had been fighting next could not possibly be with the enemy.
Ok, she told herself. Calm down. Make a plan. Get out of this. She had to get up and get to Crusader. Warn him, let him know what they were planning. One thing was for sure. She had to get that bullet out of her ear.
Cursing, swearing, and dreading what she was about to do, she pulled off her back pack and detached the straps. She took hold of the metal clasp on one end and straightened it out, turning it into a strip of metal about three inches long. She gripped it in her fist, reached up, and shoved it into her ear canal. The pain was excruciating, and tears welled up in her eyes. Gritting her teeth, she pushed harder, forcing the strip of metal farther into her ear. She thought she might pass out, but kept going until she felt metal strike against metal. The bullet was lodged quite a ways in. She wiggled the metal strip, maneuvering it down behind the lump of misshapen lead, hissing in agony the entire time. Once it felt like she had gotten under it, she pushed down on the pin and began to lever the bullet out. It came out slowly and painfully, and she was cursing, crying and gasping for breath when it finally popped out and fell onto the floor next to her. She threw away the blood cover metal strip and fell onto her side.
Just a couple of minutes, she thought. It'll stop hurting in a couple of minutes and she'd be able to get up and do what she had to do.
Crusader came to a stop in front of the door that lead to the fourth floor of the building and mentally prepare himself for what was to come next. This was it. It was almost over. He checked his guns, and adjusted the sword in his belt for easy access. His leg was sore, but it would only slow him down a little. He was ready. Taking a deep breath, he reached for the door knob.
There was a scrape on the stairs above his head and something very heavy landed on the landing right behind him. His hand snapped up and unholstered one of his automatics as he turned around. He almost pulled the trigger, but stopped himself when he saw who it was standing behind him.
"Boo." said Violator. The fifteen foot tall demon from hell let out a rasping chuckle as Crusader glared at him.
"What's with the mask, John? You look like one of those pansy assed, spandex wearing weirdos. I almost killed you before I caught your scent and realized it was you."
John Sansker reached up and pulled off the Crusader mask and hood. "I was incognito." he said. "The only way I could get into the city alive was to pose as a vampire hunter and come in with a UN invasion force made up of super heroes."
The demon shook his head, his huge, curved horns nearly jabbing John in the face. "How can you live with yourself? I don't care how down and out I was, you'd never see me in a get up like that. My luck, someone would snap a Polaroid and send it to my brothers, and then they'd be trying to kill me."
"I do what I have to do to get by. " said John. "Speaking of your brothers, how's Van?"
"We got that safe you dropped into him out, but now he's complaining about hemorrhoids alot. It was his own damn fault, though. He shouldn't be such a dick all the time." ( Sansker dropped a large safe down Vandalizer's gullet way back in Sansker: 2200 # 4)
"You know, if I could have done it any other way I would have." said John. " He didn't leave me any choice."
"Don't sweat it. Fuck him if he can't take a joke. What's the plan here, my man?"
"We're after a fellow by the name of Mark Trevors. He stole my heart."
Violator stared at him for a moment, his large bug-like eyes unblinking. "You don't mean. . " he cocked his head, as if studying John and trying to figure something out. "I mean, this isn't some kind of. . .um, how can I put this delicately. . .gay. . .thing. . .is it?"
It was John's turn to stare. "Gay thing?"
"You said he stole your heart. You ain't in love with him, or something, are you? Cause I got to tell you, I'm an old fashioned kinda demon and. . ."
"Shut up, ya moron. No, it's not a gay thing. He stole my heart, literally. The guy has my blood pumping organ beating away in his chest. Jesus, Vi, how can you be so stupid?"
Violator breathed a sigh of relief and swiped at his brow with one of his long forearms. "Thank the enemy." he said. "You scared the shit out of me. First you're wearing super hero duds and then you seem to be talking like you're in love with the guy. You gotta be careful with how you phrase things, John."
"I'll try. Now do you think you can shut up for a moment and listen?"
Violator nodded.
"Ok. We can't kill this guy. I need you to remove the heart from his chest and have it still beating."
"That's my specialty!" said Vi.
"I know." said John. "That's why I invited you on this shindig."
"Man, you think of everything. What's this thieving piece of shit look like?"
"He's about 5/10, short brown hair. He's going to smell a little like me cause he has my heart."
"Got it." said Vi. "If I find him do you want me to just hold on to him and call for you?"
"That's not going to work. He's got all my old powers, so he's going to be too hard to handle. Just move in quick and get the heart, then find me as fast as you can."
"Right on." said Violator. "Are all the other vampires fair game?"
"Kill all you want." John told him.
"Sweet."
"The let's do it." Sansker reached for the door knob and opened the door.
Violator put a hand on his shoulder and stopped him for a moment before they went through the door. "You know, John." he said. "I haven't killed anyone for months. I think I was getting into some kind of slump there. Thanks for calling me. I needed this."
"No problem." said John. "All us old bastards have to stick together, after all. Come on." They went through the door, and the carnage began.
John emptied both his guns into the vampires waiting for them on the other side of the door and then tossed them away in favor of his sword. The vampires howled as he ripped them to pieces with his blade.
The demon was snatching up vampires, sniffing them for a second and then popping their heads off. He seemed to be having the time of his life, laughing his sick rasping laugh and moving from one enemy to the next. He jumped over a cubicle partition and landed in the middle of a small group of vampires that had been hiding from them. He tore into them, biting, clawing, kicking, and impaling them on his horns. The horn on his back snapped forward over and over again like a scorpion's tail, punching holes in heads and torsos. Entrails dangled from the horns on the side of his head like wet dripping earrings. He found himself humming an old country song, "I fall to pieces."
John went through the cubicles and offices of the fourth floor, killing vampires and searching for Mark Trevors. He quickly ran out of rooms to explore and enemies to kill, so he figured Mark must be on the next floor up.
"Hey, Vi!"
"Yeah, John?"
"I think it's all clear down here. We need to go upstairs."
"Be right with you." said Vi. "I got some guy's goddamn intestines wrapped around my fucking foot."
He came stumbling into view, hunched over because of the low ceiling and trying to sling off a piece of entrail that was wrapped around his ankle. "This is great, John! I feel like I'm three hundred years old again!"
The took the stairs two at a time, reaching the fifth floor in just a couple of seconds. Violator went through the door first, dodging bullets and snatching up the nearest vampires. Heads popped like pimples in his massive hands, spraying the ceiling with gray matter
John raced past him, diving into the fray with sword flashing. Someone piled into him from the side and knocked him to the ground. He scrambled to his feet and swiped at them with his sword. As they dodged the blow he recognized his enemy. Mark Trevors.
"John Sansker." said Mark. "Imagine my surprise. Aren't you supposed to be dead?"
"I like to be unpredictable." said John as he made an uppercut that would have ripped Mark in half had it landed. Mark spun around the arc of the blade and back handed John in the side of the head. John stumbled and almost fell. Is that how strong I used to be? he wondered. Mark wasn't even trying and he had nearly taken his head off.
"You got a lot of balls coming after me, John. I got all your old powers, and it looks like you got nothing." He slapped away one of John's sword swipes and jabbed his knee into his gut, driving the air out of him. John fell over, wheezing and feebly swinging his sword.
"You look like you moving in slow motion to me. Like you're running through cold molasses or something."
Sansker got to his knees and then lunged forward, attempting to stab Mark through the gut. Mark dodged to the side and slammed the heel of his hand into John's chin. John was thrown up into the air and backwards, his limbs flailing around. He landed badly and felt the bones in his right shoulder snap.
"That didn't sound good, John. Was that your shoulder or did I get lucky and snap your neck?"
John didn't answer. He just lay there on his back, too hurt to move.
"I'm just going to finish you off now, and this time, I'll make sure you're dead." Mark stepped over John and and reached for his head.
John took in a deep breath. "Vi!" he shouted. "I could really use some help about now."
"Sure thing." said a voice from right behind Mark. Mark's chest exploded in a spray of blood, making John flinch when his face was splattered with gore. When he opened his eyes he saw Violator's hand sticking out through Mark's chest, John's beating heart in his grasp. The ends of the artery and vein sticking from each end of the heart wiggled around as if searching for something and they made little sucking sounds.
"This belongs to you, I believe?" said the demon.
Mark looked down and gasped in fear and pain. "Wha-?" was all he could manage before his eyes rolled up in his head and he collapsed on Violator's arm.
"Hey, John, can you grab your heart for a second? I gotta get this guy offa my arm."
John took the heart from the demon's grasp and it continued to wiggle and pump in his hands. It was hard to hold onto.
"There." said Violator as he slung Mark across the room. "Well. you got your heart back. What do you want to do now?"
"I want you to put it back in." said John.
"What? How?"
"The same way you took it out of him. Just put it right in."
"But that would kill you!"
"Once it's back in me I'll have all my powers back. I'll heal in no time at all."
"I don't know." said the demon. "Shouldn't you have a surgeon do it?"
"No, I want you to do it. Now. Help me up so we can get this over with."
Violator grabbed him by the shoulders and stood him up on his own two feet. "Here." said John, carefully handing him the heart.
"You're sure about this?"
"Yes, do it. Now, before the heart dies."
"Ok, whatever you say." Violator pulled back his arm and then snapped it forward, piercing John's chest with his heart in his hand. John gasp and went rigid. Violator let go of the heart and withdrew his hand. Sansker's knees went weak and he fell to the floor. He lay there, curled up into a fetal position and convulsing.
"John?" said Violator as he leaned over his friend for a closer look. "You okay, buddy? You don't look so good."
John rolled over onto his back, stretched out his arms and legs and took a deep breath. "Good?" he said, his face breaking out into a smile. "I feel GREAT!" The hole in the middle of his chest had disappeared. He got to his feet, stretching and flexing his arms and legs. A bloody tampon fell out of the end of his pant leg. "I feel so alive. I feel like some kind of fucking god!" His muscles were expanding, doubling in mass. He had felt so weak for so long, it felt wonderful to feel like his old self again. He flexed his chest and shoulders and the uniform he was wearing shredded itself under the strain. He tore off the shredded shirt, revealing the strange, mystical tattoos he had all over his torso. He clenched and unclenched his hands and claws extended from his fingertips. He giggled with delight. He wished those rednecks down in Del Ray were here right now. (Sansker 2200 # 7) "I just want to kill something." he told Violator. "Just take something living into my hands and rip it to pieces. And I'm thirsty. I feel like I could drink a whole lake of blood. Come on, let's go on a rampage."
He started through the corpse filled room towards the staircase.
"I thought we were on a rampage." said Violator. "You're going to top this?" He indicated all the bodies with a wave of his hand.
"Oh, yeah." said John. "I'm going to paint the town red."
Then he saw Maxine standing in the doorway.
"You son of a bitch." she said. Her hands were clenched into fists and her eyes were narrowed into hateful slits.
"Who's this?" said Vi.
"Trouble." said John. This was unexpected. How had she managed to recover? He had counted her as down and out.
"I'll handle it." said the demon as he launched himself at Maxine.
"No!" John shouted in warning, but it was too late. Max pulled back her arm and sank her fist into the Violator's face. Vi flew backwards, sailing past John, trailing broken teeth and strands of blood. He crashed into the wall at the opposite end of the building, slid to the floor and then fell forward onto his belly.
"John." he slurred through a broken jaw. "I'm going to let you handle this one."
"I trusted you." Max stepped towards John. "You used me, you blood sucking bastard,"
"What can I do to make it up to you?" asked John as he backed up, his hands in the air.
"You can fucking die!" she screamed and she jumped at him.
He side stepped as she threw her first punch, grabbing her arm and slinging her into the wall. She recovered and laid a left into his jaw. He shook it off and slashed his claws across her face, tearing away huge flaps of skin and laying her bare to the bone. Lunging forward, she head butted him, dousing him in her own blood. He felt his skull crack from the blow and jumped away from her. She followed, delivering punches to his gut and when he turned to avoid those, she pounded his kidneys. He spun, dropping as he did and making a sweeping kick that took her legs out from under her. He regained his feet as she fell and jumped in close enough to kick her in the head. She grabbed a hold of his foot and then rolled the other way, dragging him with her. He went up into the air and then came down hard on the ground, landing on his chin. A second later she landed on his back, with a knee driving into his spine. John reached up and behind, grabbed a hold of her head and threw her forward. He crawled after her but she put a boot into his face and knocking him away. They got to their feet and closed in on each other, keeping low and trying to not give each other a target. Maxine lashed out with her foot, trying to break his knee. John caught the foot and while keeping her off balance, delivered two bell ringers to the side of her head. Maxine jumped into the air using her other leg and brought it up to kick him in the solar plexus. His ribs cracking, he was forced to let go and fall backwards. She back flipped and landed on her feet.
From outside came the sound of approaching aircraft. Maxine turned and looked out the window, her expression one of horror. The bombs.
John noticed the look on her face. "What?!" he spat out, suddenly afraid.
Maxine ran towards the nearest window and dove through the glass. She dropped feet first towards the pavement four stories below.
Deciding that she must know something he didn't, John started after her a few seconds later. He didn't make it. He heard several large booms as the aircraft passed over head and then the world collapsed around him.
Meanwhile- As far as the caverns of hell go, the Law offices of Greed and Deceit were very nice. Persian rugs covered the floors, only they weren't really Persian because the country had been known as Babylon when they had been acquired. Rare painting and original photographs hung on the wall, a wide range of artists from Borsch to Barker to Anne Geddes. There were low wattage lamps on all the coffee tables, lamps that were covered with shades that looked like they had been made from human skin. Several of the shades bore tattoos. A license to practice law was hanging next to the door, and it had been signed by Lucifer himself (as are all licenses to practice law, you just have to look real close down in the bottom in all the fine print.) .
Gathered in this room was some of the highest ranking demons of hell. When Armageddon finally arrived, it would be these evil creatures that would command the armies of hell in battle. There had been fights between the demons in this room before. They had struggled against each other, manipulating and cheating their way as they tried to add more souls to the respective armies and improve their standing in the eyes of Lucifer. But those squabbles were all put aside today. They were gathered in this place to hear the last will and testament of a dear friend, Vladar Pudervrag.
The attorney Greed was reading the will.
"To my dear old pit mate Pedenigmatalyn I leave my bottomless pit of shit and pus. Know that if such a thing was allowed in a place like this, I would say that I love you. You were there for me during the good times and the bad. There were days that I didn't fill evil and you were there to make me feel evil. I thank you. Please enjoy the comfort that only a bottomless pit of shit and pus can bring and take a moment to remember your old friend when you do."
To Syphilitic Frenzy, I leave my magic snowball. It was created for me by a Xorgal Dimensional Wizard and has survived in the heat of this place we call home for twenty seven thousand years. On a particularly hot night, stuff it down into your underwear as I often did and think of me."
And finally, to my colleague and sometime adversary Malbolgia I leave all the souls I have collected over the last hundred thousand years. This may seem shocking to some, but you must understand that while I've had my battles with Malbolgia and have always spoken of him in an ill manner, I do in fact have the utmost respect for him and have always found him to be a worthy adversary. He is a devil after my own heart and I believe he will use these souls wisely and for the benefit of all of hell. In the end, that's what matters. That we win the war. "
Good Bye Friends, I hope to see you in the hereafter,
Yours in Mischief
Vladar Pudervrag"
As the demons filed out of the office, Malbolgia accepted the stack of soul deeds from the attorney, balancing the four hundred and fifty foot pile of papers carefully in his hand. Incredible, he thought to himself. His was now by far the largest of hell's armies. And not pathetic souls, either. Pudervrag always had excellent taste in souls and the skill to obtain them. This stack would be full of warriors, killers, soldiers, and Pudervrag's favorite of all, gunfighters.
Malbolgia glanced at the deed on the top of the stack and his eyes widened. The name on the deed was John Sansker. Pudervrag had finally gotten him to sign on the dotted line?! Sansker had been a pursuit of Pudervrag's for some five hundred years, and everyone in hell knew it Most laughed about it. No soul was worth that much trouble. Pudervrag had ignored them though. He said that the soul of a cold blooded bastard like John Sansker was a valuable thing indeed. He had spent half a millennium to get that signature, and it seemed that right before he died, he finally had. And now the soul belonged to Malbolgia.
The first thought that came into John's mind was, "I'm alive!" He was pinned under a one ton slab of concrete, sure, but by god he was alive. He laughed as he lifted the chunk of cement up and pulled himself free. He had survived another ordeal. He waited a moment for his legs to heal properly and then he got shakily to his feet. Taking in a deep breath of air, he stood in the middle of the buildings rubble and bellowed with laughter.
"Fuck you all! I'm alive! You can't kill me! No one can kill me! 'Cause I'm John fucking Sansker!"
There was a whistle behind him. He turned to see Maxine standing there and saw the piece of rebar in her hand. In one swift motion she stabbed with the piece of jagged metal and plunged it into his head. The world went black for John.
After she had radioed the base, they came for her and found her sitting next to the bombed out building with the body of John Sansker.
"Careful." she told them. "He's not dead. If you take out that piece of metal in his brain he will regenerate. Only one way to kill a vampire, and that's to stab them through the heart. He taught me that."
She felt numb, and very tired. She wanted to go home.
~Fin-Fan-Fic-Fanatics~Letters and comments from readers. Do I rock or do I suck? Write me and tell me what you think. If you don't want your comments put in this letters column, or if you want them taken out, please let me know.
If you want to read other stuff I have written, try Bad Monkey Comics
Well, there it is. For better or worse, that's the end of my Sansker/Dragon crossover. I'm always amazed at how much stories write themselves. This one took off in a lot of directions that I hadn't originally planned. This is probably the last time I will write the Sansker character and I wasn't entirely sure how I wanted to end his story. I thought about killing him off, but that didn't sit to well with me. I didn't want to just let him walk away from it all happy either. So I leave him in the custody of the United Nations (who are none to happy with him) and I leave his soul in the possession of Malbolgia. One of the things I never did incorporate in this last issue that I wanted to was his ability to change into snake form. There just never seemed to be a good opportunity for him to change during his fight with Maxine. In the original Bloodfued comics he had to strip naked and then it took a minute for him to shapeshift. I wanted the fight to be fast and fierce, so his shapeshifting wasn't a practical thing. I used it twice before in the Sansker 2200 series so that will have to suffice.
I hope you have enjoyed this arc, it's a relief for me to finish it. I started writing this Sansker storyline a long time ago and I'm glad it's finally over. Maybe someday I'll get the urge to continue it. I can't see Sansker staying locked up for long, and I don't think that he would like the idea that someone else owns his soul. Here is the letter I got this time.
As for #10, I loved it. As soon as I read "pool of blood" and "I've
told only you," I knew it was going to be Crusader, but I must admit, I'm
stumped about who's in his place, since you didn't include Phantom Master in
this. Btw, you haven't told the readers who the PM is yet- in the story,
anyway. That was an e-mail discussion you and I had. I wasn't suggesting
that he be a traitor to the team, just that Maxine having to divide her
attention between vampires and her doubts about the PM would be interesting.
But that was just idle chitchat. You know me- I'm gonna sit back and enjoy
the ride, no matter where you go with this. I'm diggin' it like that frog to
Sugar Smacks.
"Dig 'em! Dig 'em!"
C.L. Bishop =>
I'm glad you liked it, C. L.. Sorry for the spoilers I laid on you. I had hoped that everybody would figure out that Crusader was Sansker at the end of last issue, but apparently I guard my secrets and subplots a little too well. I hope you enjoy how it all turned out and thanks for writing.
