Disclaimer: This is what happened. One day I went totally beserk and decided that I'd plunge the characters of Smallville into an insane adventure that moved so fast it gave me a headache, that had so many twists it gave me a brain cramp, that was just pure fluffery and fun that it made me drug free high! So to Warner Bros and DC comics I apologise for grabbing your characters and taking them with me. If you want them back, I'll have them restored and returned as good as new! Also to Stan Lee and Marvel comics - I took Blade when you weren't looking... I'll give him back right away! As soon as he's helped me out here... if you want to sue me, the joke's on you! But if you want me to take the story down - I can do that! Todd McFarlane, I gave Spawn a brief mention below, so should I add your name to the 'People Who Want To Sue Me' list? Hope not! Thanks.


Foreword: Thanks to all the great reviewers! If you've got questions, suggestions or anything to share [deep breath] feel free to express them, in plain candour if need be. After all, it's not as polished as I want it, but the first vision of a story is usually it's truest and best. I'm giving this to you guys as something to get lost in. Hope you can enjoy! Happy reading!

Footnote: I can't really mark footnotes in text files so I'll have to highlight this now. To AHobbitLassRosie - I know a little about the DCU. I understand that Superman is a giant solar cell, evident because his powers manifest themselves because of the Earth's yellow sunlight. So I imagined that if there was a vampire with strong enough chompers to hack into Clark Kent, he would definitely receive a fatal surprise. If you read the previous chapter, I took your idea and visualised as best I could. Thanks!




~They Mounted Their Horses And Charged In All Directions~


The sniper paid careful attention to his 'Starlight' display screen, set atop his .50 calibre sniper rifle.

The main doors of the Luthor ancestral home were reflected through the display, illuminated in an errie green glow. Simply by amplifying the light of the moon, the Starlight system could make a nightscape look as bright as a cloudless afternoon on the beach.

Suddenly a small group exploded from the main doors. Two males in the lead, carrying a third incapicitated man between them. The sniper quickly focussed on their faces, ran them against the target identifications he had in his head and began to lower his trigger finger gently around the gun's trigger.

There were three more people behind those first three. Six in total, but only one that was meant for the sniper. They were all tracking down toward one of Luthor's Porches. The sniper estimated he had under ten seconds to align his shot and take it...


*****


"Clark, you still with us?" Lex asked.

There was no audible response. Clark's eyes were lightly closed and he swung drowsily between Lex and Blade.

"He'll be fine once we get him to the plant" Blade rasped evenly.

Lex stole a fleeting glance at the man who spoke, mildly annoyed. "How did you know-"

Blade raised a black gloved hand, palm forward. "Take us there" He ordered.

When they reached the car, Lex hastily opened the door and lowered Clark into the seat. "There's only room for two" Lex said.

"Fine, I bought my own wheels" Blade said.

Chloe stormed in front of Blade, looking up at his face with the most intense expression she could muster. "We're coming with you" She demanded.

"No" Blade said coolly. He turned toward the main gate and began crunching off down the gravel driveway. Chloe stared in stunned silence, then she turned on her heel and raced after him.

"Chloe!" Pete called out, seconds before he left in pursuit. Lana looked on helplessly and choose to follow Pete.

"Chloe, come -" Pete called.

The first shots knifed apart the rest of his words.


*****


The sniper checked his starlight display and noticed one of the men was down. He couldn't see which one, so he quickly appraised the remaining targets and concluded he got who he came for. He shut off the display and slowly pulled out of the spot he'd been waiting in for ten hours.

Swiftly moving along the south wall, he came to the corner where there was a blindspot in the surveillance cameras field of vision and leapt the 12 metre wall in an agile forward flip. He landed soundlessly on the other side and swiftly melted into the night.


*****


Pete was on the ground.

Lana froze in mid step.

Blade took Chloe by the shoulders and pushed her flat to the ground. He drew his two giant machine pistols and looked, listened and felt for the source of the shots. He could see as clear as day, even through his wrap arounds. He could hear a heartbeat and sense breathing from an immeasureable distance. All he had to do was focus his instincts.

This time though, the shooter was gone. Blade knew what that meant before he'd even checked the others. He had got who he came for.

Lana was stuck. Her feet were encased in concrete. She knew what was happening but couldn't force herself to move. She braced herself for the feeling of a bullet tearing into her, whatever that felt like.

She wimpered as she felt something go past her. There was no pain, except for the thunderous shock in her chest. The fear released a maelstrom of anxious blows inside her stomach. But something didn't feel right...

She opened her eyes and saw Blade's shadow moving from behind her. She turned to follow it and then stared at the motionless form Blade was walking toward.

Lex was down and not moving.


*****


Matt McCarthy drove through the still country backroads of Smallville. He opened up on the gas a little more and had it almost to the floor. He was already behind schedule.

Flashing lights. Red-blue, red-blue, red-blue. Cops!

A single sheriff's department patrol car was parked at an angle across the road ahead. McCarthy pulled back his leaden foot and slowed back to the speed limit. He dipped his headlights before rolling up to a lanky, tired looking deputy.

He rolled down his window. "Evening, what's going on?" He asked cordially.

The deputy tipped back the rim of his hat as he leaned down to talk. "We got an accident up ahead, I'm just waiting for the paramedics and some back up" He said. His dark sullen eyes looked drained and the sallow rings underneath them added to his corpse like expresssion.

McCarthy was trained to notice this, and as a soldier he knew how to take advantage of it. "You like tired" He commented. The deputy bobbed his head as a slight acknowledgement. "I've got some coffee here if you'd like a cup" McCarthy offered politely.

"No, I cou-"

"It's no problem officer, I'll just get my flask, could you grab a mug from the back seat there?"

"Well thank you" The deputy said. "Back here?" He asked.

"Yes"

The deputy leaned in through the window. McCarthy had him in seconds. It was all over fairly quickly, but it was still a hard death.


*****


Up ahead, Doug Jameson stayed as still as he could. Pinned between the steering column and the back seat, his chest seemed ready to cave in. But he tried hard to stay conscious, relying on the words of the lone deputy who had arrived some time ago and had promised to get help.

The car roof was compacted flat and the front of it had what looked like a huge shark bite out of it. It was his own fault he told himself underneath the staggering weight of intense pain. He should've paid more attention to the road and less time on compiling that proposal for the Kent's farm. He might've seen the horse wandering loose on the road then. But he hadn't and here he was.

Then he laughed inside his own head, and noticed with some mirth that he was almost half insane from thirst. He was Doug Jameson, the man who could buy or sell the most exclusive properties. The Kent's farm would be his crowning triumph. That and the handsome remunerations and commission that Eric Pallantine would pay him.

He lay in quiet agony, wanting to scream but not daring to, in case his lungs exploded. But just then the car lurched and he felt blood and sweet tepid bile rising up in the back of his throat. Then the world spun, end over end as if everything was in a tumble drier.

As the car settled into the ditch by the side of the road, Jameson couldn't hold his agony in any longer and he screamed as loud and painfully as he could. As the oxygen escaped his lungs, the pain grew. But he quickly saw that it was a mistake to scream and he stopped as soon as he could.

Just then he saw a blood spattered face drop into view through the windscreen. The pain ricocheting through his chest was to suffocating to loose another scream. But his eyes went unbinkingly wide. He squirmed in terror. The face smiled.

Jameson noticed a pair of legs walking around to his side of the car and he reeled from the sight of them looming to a stop outside his smashed driver's side window. Then he saw a knee bend and shortly afterward, the bloody face came lower and looked through the short gaping distance between them.

His last image was more horrific than any nightmare imagining. The cold dead hand of a monster reaching straight toward his face, before he passed into the eternal night.


*****


"Lex!" Lana called.

Blade was already crouched over him as Lana jogged over. Chloe was just getting up, rubbing her shoulders with a grimace. Pete stirred a little but was lying prone on the ground.

"How is he?" Lana asked, she wanted to come closer, but Blade's posture seemed defensive, so she stood close by. As he looked up to face her, a heavy feeling fell across her shoulders and suddenly she was very tired.

Blade's face was typically unreadable and his tone was even. "He's dead". Rolling Lex's body over, Lana saw a dark centred, red smudge on his forehead. His eyes were half open, vacantly staring somewhere far away.

Chloe got to her feet, saw Lana and that strange guy standing over by Lex. She considered the scene for a moment, creating an idea of what was going on in her mind before she saw Pete stir. A few careful steps toward Pete and she hesitated. There was a widening red patch spreading across the back of his shirt.

Muttering a few 'Oh My God's' underneath her breath, she crashed to her knees beside Pete and tried to get him to sit up.

"Ahhh! Watch it, I think I'm hit" Pete said in strained tones.

"Come on, you've gotta sit up Pete" Chloe urged, she disregarded a fragmented memory of keeping an accident victim still and tried to crane him upright.

"How about that?" Pete said weakly.

"What?" Chloe grunted, trying to elevate Pete's torso upright. "How bout what?"

"I thought you were going to die back at the Torch offices..." He let a hiss slip between his teeth, as pain stabbed through his shoulder. "And it turns out I'm the one who's gonna buy it tonight" A few strangled guffaws escaped his grimacing face.

Chloe was horrified and bit her lip. "What a drama queen". She said firmly, but she was glad Pete couldn't see the concern she felt whelling up in her eyes. "Guys! I need help!" She cried out.

In seconds Blade was there and lifted Pete like a piece of tissue paper. Pete yelped as Blade moved his arm around, examining the bullet wound and the damage it may have done. "You'll live" Blade concluded.

Chloe paid close attention to Pete. "Are you sure?" She asked. Blade never answered her, instead he turned away and walked back to the porsche where Clark was. "What's your name?" Chloe cried out after him.

"Blade"


*****


Matt McCarthy arrived in Metropolis a couple of hours after his run in with the law. He followed the main traffic along busy streets that snaked through heavily built up business areas. He noticed the people surging along the walkways.

He knew he had crossed to the "other side of the tracks" when the traffic flow dried up. The model of cars grew older and the sidewalks lost their luster, with empty looking individuals treading along it, as if on death row.

McCarthy proceeded past that and turned into the truly dead part of a city - it's abandoned industrial area. Huge warehouses flew past on both sides of him as he drove between them. All except one had their main doors closed.

He entered into a preternatural gloom. The doors rumbled shut behind him and McCarthy felt a painful gout of anxiety rupture in his stomach. He tried to look out his windscreen but it was to damn black. It would've been strange to him, such darkness in the middle of the morning, if he didn't know what it meant already.

He was coming.

McCarthy got out and stood by the open door. Seconds later an athletic frame melted into view. The sound of the newcomer's footsteps rang out through the darkness and then stopped. McCarthy couldn't see his face, but he didn't have too. He knew who it was.

"It's done" McCarthy said.

"Why did you kill Jameson?" The man asked.

"What? How'd you know about that?"

"Jameson was important to our plans, you should've helped him, not fed on him" The man stated, his tone flaring.

"I'm sorry!" McCarthy jibbered. He sensed the mood around the presence of the man suddenly become weightier and intensely darker. McCarthy wondered how he knew, it was only a few hours ago and it wouldn't have made the news yet... noone would discover those two yet, not the way he had left the bodies.

"There's more work for you to do" The man said, sounding suddenly disinterested in what happened to Jameson. "I want you to watch over someone"

"Who?"

"One of my warrior children. Steer him toward trouble and make sure he uses all of his powers to the best of his ability. If he doesn't become a Hell Spawn in double time, I'm going to enjoy pulling off your arms and legs and eating your intestines" The man assured him.

McCarthy stumbled for a response, but could only nod.

"He's down in the slums, go find him and do what I told you too"

McCarthy kept nodding numbly and stumbled back into his car. But he mustered up the courage to ask one question, sure that he wouldn't die now because of his new assignment. "Why did you want me to kill Lex?"

"Weren't you paid enough or something?" The figure asked.

McCarthy nodded feebly, but secretly wished he had been paid by Luthor himself, before he blew his brains out. That and the shitload of pay he was being promised now would've bought him a small island in the Carribbean.

The big warehouse doors rumbled open behind him and he started his car. As he reversed back he thought he heard the man, who was still only a shadowy image despite the invasion of light through the main doors, call something strange out to him. He shook it off as he backed out and made his way toward his new assignment.

But if he had listened closer...

"Don't worry Matt, I'll tell Lex you said hello" Kane Slater said.