"Who's the chick
with the guns?" Ash asked rather nonchalantly, considering the
situation.
"The name's Hood.
B.B. Hood." She grinned maniacally over the barrel of her Uzis.
"She's a bounty
hunter." Mei-Ling scoffed contemptuously.
"B.B. Hood?" Ash
said, sounding utterly perplexed. "Where the hell did you get a
name like that?"
"And I suppose you
think 'deadites' is better?" Hsien-Ko said, placing her hands
on her hips as if she had taken offense at Ash's statement for the
blonde haired bounty hunter.
"At least it doesn't
sound like it came out of a kid's fairy tale." Ash threw back at
her.
"Hey!" B.B. Hood
screamed, firing her Uzis into the air. Ash and the other's all
flinched back to reality, and addressed the situation gravely now.
"What do you want?"
Donovan asked, the calm in his voice never faltering.
"The bunch of you
are wanted" she said, her guns not lowering an inch, "And I don't
know who you are," she inclined her head towards Ash, "but if you
have anything to do with all the craziness going on, I'm sure
you're worth something."
"Hey, let's talk
this over first..." Ash said, trying his best to carefully reach up
his back for his shotgun. But to eyes as sharp as B. B. Hood's,
the slight twitches were obvious.
"Make a single move,
and I'll blow you're brains out." She said simply, and fired a
few rounds into the ground at Ash's feet. He jumped, and his hand,
which had just managed to grasp the butt of his gun, flew into the
air, tearing the weapon from its holster at his back, sending it
flying into the air. "Now, all of you, hands in the air. We're
going for a walk." She gestured with her guns, emphasizing her
orders.
Anita frowned, and
clutched her doll tighter to her chest. Her eyes narrowed and
focused on the Uzis clutched in the crazed woman's hands. A
mysterious blue aura began to vibrate around the guns, and they were
quickly yanked from Hood's hands.
In a flash, it all
happened. Mei-Ling swept down and scooped Anita into her arms,
ducking quickly for safety. Donovan and Hsien-Ko leapt into action,
diving toward B.B. Hood, but she reached into the basket dangling
from her arm, and withdrew a pair of shiny red apples. She bit the
stems from them and tossed them into the air, and they exploded in
bursts of fire and smoke.
Ash ducked below the
explosions, and crawled along the ground, trying to retrieve his
shotgun. He had gone no more than a couple of feet when he found
himself face to face with a pair of military style boots. He looked
up those boots, and then up the shapely legs that followed, and then
up some more, into the twin barrels of the Uzis, retrieved and back
in the hands of the blonde woman, whose eyes were now bulging,
bloodshot and infuriated. Her chest rose and fell in strained
breaths of rage as she slammed an ammunition cartridge into one of
the guns, and held it closer to Ash's face.
"Uh...you're boot
laces are undone?" he said, hoping vainly she would fall for it.
But she didn't, and her finger began to slowly pressed onto the
trigger. "Hey, think of a number between one and five!" Ash said
quickly, "Was it two?" and with that he promptly poked two
fingers of his remaining hand up into B. B. Hood's eyes. She
shrieked and stumbled back, her Uzis firing into the air. She
growled curses as her vision cleared, and she was confronted by Ash,
on his feet, shotgun in hand.
He held it up, and
pulled the trigger. The buckshot tore into the basket, ripping a
large hole into it, and the weapons cleverly disguised amongst the
food tumbled out at her feet. She stared down at it, startled, and
then started to protest when Ash slammed his fist hard into her face.
She fell back, and blacked out.
Ash blew at the barrel
of his gun, the smoke clearing away, and slid it back into its
holster. He pointed a finger down at the unconscious bounty hunter.
"Never, never mess with a man with a boomstick!" he commanded.
"Jeez, you've got
a stupid name for everything, don't you?" Hsien-Ko said,
dripping with sarcasm as she and Donovan walked up to him. Mei-Ling
also came, Anita walking alongside her. Mei-Ling looked down at the
unconscious bounty hunter, and then smiled warmly at their new
companion.
"All right" she
said, "I am impressed." Ash smiled, and winked.
"Well, well, Dimitri
Maximoff, come down from on high to mingle with the commoners."
Morrigan chuckled to herself.
"What do you want?"
Lilith demanded, pointing a finger accusingly at the towering
vampire.
"Morrigan" Dimitri
said, ignoring Lilith, "Such deception and thievery. From you I
had expected better." He shook his head like a parent scolding
their child. Morrigan just scoffed.
"All is fair in love
and war, Lord Maximoff."
"Besides, finder's
keepers!" Q. Bee added in. "You want it, you gotta fight for
it!"
"I've no desire to
waste my time or energy squashing the few of you" Dimitri said, "I
merely off you all warnings: leave that book to me, or you shall most
certainly suffer for it." With that, Dimitri wrapped his cloak back
about himself, and vanished into the shadows of the night.
"Jerk." Lilith
muttered, and turned to address her sister, only to find that the
larger, more statuesque vampire had vanished with Dimitri. Lilith
looked at Q. Bee, who returned her confused expression. "You
know..." Lilith said, holding her arms open as if to show there was
no danger to the insectoid darkstalker, "Maybe you and I can work
something out..."
The woman huffed and
wiped some sweat from her forehead with one fuzzy hand. Her tail
flicked with annoyance, and she looked around at all the other crates
that still had to be loaded onto the train. She sighed and leaned
against one, muttering to herself.
"Who would have
thought that catnip would run out so fast?" she sighed and crouched
down, ready to hoist the crate she was struggling with again.
"Need a hand?" a
masculine voice said, and the crate was lifted away from her. She
looked up, and smiled into the eyes that looked down at her. She
stood up and moved closer to the man.
"Thanks John."
She leaned in and planted a kiss on his cheek. He smiled at her, and
she touched her face to his, a soft purr rising from her throat.
"I'm glad you decided to come on this tour with me. I couldn't
stand to be away from you for so long."
"Its my pleasure,
kitten." He said, calling her by the familiar pet name. She smiled
and watched as he carried the crate up the ramp, into the train.
Then she looked up at the sky, examining the dark clouds, trying to
find the moon. It would not be long before his next transformation.
"Maybe we can lend a
hand." A familiar voice offered. Felicia spun, and was confronted
by a group of figures walking out from the shadows toward her. She
dropped into a battle ready stance, but her tension vanished as she
recognized the people walking to her.
"Mei-Ling, Hsie-Ko!"
she shouted. She ran up to them and threw her arms simultaneously
around both of them, nearly barreling them over. They both laughed,
and returned the friendly hug. She addressed the next figure.
"Donovan, how are you big guy?" Donovan's face remained a mask
of passivity, but he nodded his head to her in a friendly fashion.
Then she knelt down to look into the eyes of the small girl. "Hi
Anita, how are you doing?" The corner's of the girl's mouth
turned up slightly. Then Felicia rose, and found herself face to
face with an unfamiliar face. "Um...I'm afraid I haven't had
the pleasure, mister...?"
"Ash. Just call me
Ash." He said, offering her a charming grin and extending his hand.
Felicia smiled, and took it, expecting a shake, and was pleasantly
surprised when Ash instead bent his head down and planted a small
kiss on her paw. She giggled slightly, while Hsien-Ko rolled he
eyes.
"Nice to meet you
Ash." She turned back to the two sisters. "What are you guys
doing here?"
"Well, we need your
help, Felicia..." Mei-Ling began.
"Oh, I wish I could
you guys..." Felicia said, interrupting, "But I'm in the middle
of a tour right now, I don't have time for any adventures."
"This is bigger than
any tour, lady" Ash said, "We're talking heavy duty, end of the
world stuff here. Unless you want to be singing to an audience of
deadites."
"What?" Felicia
said, her ears lowering slightly in confusion and irritation.
As if on cue, there
was the sound of scrambling along the roof of the train. All heads
swung up to see the dark figure leap from the room and land at the
end of the platform. It rose to its feet and strode into the light.
Felicia gasped when she saw mutilated features that started hungrily
at them. "Is...is that..." she said, her eyes the size of dinner
plates.
"Yeah. Here we go
again." Ash groaned and yanked his shotgun back from its holster,
ready for action.
Well, finally updated true believers! I can't say how sorry I am for taking so long to get back to work on this fic. But, the important thing is, I am now, and will not stop until it is done! I will try to get in a couple of updates a week until completion. Now, I would like to answer a question posted by one kind reviewer. This is for Louis The Rogue: yes, this fic is indeed posted twice. I also put it up under the Evil Dead/Army of Darkness selection in the Movies section here on It is under the title "Book of the Darkstalkers." I had wanted to use the same title twice, but the site would not allow it, so I just used a slightly different one. Hope that clears up any confusion.
Keep reading, true believers!
