The Chaos Chronicles
Lady Death
Dark Alliance
Part Three: Frenzy
The oriental vampiress, Jade, her katana-wielding bodyguard, Silence, and the gun-toting Bad Kitty moved to stand back-to-back with each other, as Serge and his werewolf slaves slowly surrounded them, slavering hungrily. The walls of the warehouse echoed with their growls, along with the terrified cries of those few ravers who had not turned.
"You will find ordinary guns less than effective, I think," Jade warned her American companion.
"Great," replied Bad Kitty. "And here I left my silver bullets at home, kimo sabe. Only reason I came here was to meet a guy and he stands me up. I hate blind dates."
The Russian werewolf, Serge, chuckled. "Serge not mind picking you up but I am tired of dating the dead!"
Oblivia, the dj of this illegal rave, and a vampire herself, suddenly leapt down from the stage and slammed her boot into the werewolf's muzzle. "You bastard!" she cried. "You used me...used my gigs...as an excuse to peddle your drugs! And I am not dead! I'm undead, you moron!"
Oblivia charged at Serge but the werewolf caught her fist in his giant paw. "Selling drugs only reason Serge stay so long. Make you true dead now."
Suddenly, a burst of gunfire separates the two combatants. They look up in the direction from which the bullets had come, to see a big man with a long goatee standing above the skylight, aiming a heavy pistol at the werewolf.
"Serge," the newcomer growled. "I should've figured. Pull back. I'm packing hollow point silver bullets that will splatter your many hide all over this room."
"Gallows!" Serge howled. Hiding behind gun, eh? Not man enough, not wolf enough, to take me either way?"
Gallows squeezed the trigger, but instead of firing he tossed the gun away. "Screw that," he snarled, and dived down through the window. As he fell, shaggy fur burst out over his skin, his hands and feet became claws, and his head transformed into a fearsome wolfish muzzle. He landed on the floor directly in front of Serge and stood facing him, werewolf to werewolf.
"Damn thing just jammed on me anyway," Gallows growled. "Prefer to settle this between us tooth and claw!"
Gallows and Serge tore into each other, and at that signal, the entire warehouse erupted into savage battle. Serge's werewolf slaves leapt at their chosen victims, and Oblivia, Jade, Silence, and Bad Kitty fought back furiously. Oblivia fought with fang and claw, and took every opportunity to slam her heavy boots into their faces. Jade called upon her powerful sorcery to tear them apart. Silence sliced at them with her deadly katanas, and Bad Kitty filled many of the werewolves with enough lead to slow them down, despite her lack of silver.
But the defenders were heavily outnumbered, and forced to fight wildly just to survive. Jade managed to clear an area around her with her mystic bolts, and took a moment to look around desperately for her companion. "Silence!" she cried. "I cannot see my bodyguard, Silence!"
Bad Kitty, reloading quickly, called back over shoulder. "There's too many of them! They pulled her down and we're going next!"
Suddenly, there is a shout from above, and a woman with inhumanly pale skin and white hair, armed with a glowing sword and a sickle on a chain, flies down through the skylight window. A red-headed vampire leaps down behind her.
"This is the place I told you about!" the red-headed vampire known as Chastity calls to her companion. "Looks like they started the party without us!"
"The beasts attack those I have named allies!" the white-skinned woman cries in anger. "This is not to be endured."
The flying woman landed on the floor and, without a moment's hesitation, instantly leapt into the battle and sliced through a werewolf's head with her powerful chaos-blade, Apocalypse. "Back, hounds of Hell!" she roared. "Lady Death commands!"
While Lady Death launched into a frenzied attack, hacking at the werewolves savagely, Chastity leapt upon the back of another and began throttling it. "Down! Heel! Bad dog!"
With the reinforcements, the tide of battle turned and the werewolves were brutally massacred. Finally, only two remained, battling each other. Lady Death cast her golden sickle at one of them and the chain wrapped around its throat. With a savage tug, Lady Death snapped its neck.
Lady Death then stalked up to the last of the werewolves. "You!" she snarled. "You are the last one standing! The last blood to be shed!"
Chastity instantly leapt between them and held up her hands in a conciliatory gesture. "Whoa, Lady D! Actually, this is the guy we came to meet! This is Gallows!"
Gallows rumbled at her. "Pleased to meet you, Lady...Death, is it?"
Lady Death stared at him for a moment, then lowered her weapons and, with a thought, caused them to disappear into thin air.
"Hold on," Bad Kitty ran up to them. "I've met Lady Death and you're a bit...paler than her."
"I've assumed my true form," Lady Death replied, and as she did so, Bad Kitty's pet cat leapt up into her arms. "Ah, Lucky! Taking good care of the human, are you?"
Bad Kitty stared at her wonderingly. "Well, I guess if the cat vouches for you, you're okay."
At that moment, the wail of sirens came from outside, distant at first but approaching rapidly.
"Cops coming," Chastity said. "We should re-convene this meeting elsewhere."
"Agreed," Lady Death replied. "We'll use my Sanctuary. There is much that needs explanation!"
"Forget it!" Oblivia shook her head. "I'm not involved in this."
"The drug Xorcist I traced here," Jade told her. "Now my bodyguard is missing. You are very involved, Oblivia."
"This is not a request," Lady Death glared at the young vampire. "This is not a debate. You're coming, let's go."
Gallows, having returned to his human form, took out a cigar, stuck it between his teeth, and lit it up. "Too bad Serge is dead. He might've been able to tell us a lot."
Lady Death walked over to the corpse of the Russian werewolf, which has now reverted to a merely human corpse. Holding her hands above it, she levitates the body into the air with magic.
"We'll take him along. Sometimes it is easier to get the dead to talk than the living. We leave now."
At the top of the world, deep within the arctic desert, there was only silence. But then, with a horrid tearing sound, a rip appeared in the fabric of space. A red-skinned woman with wings, horns and fangs was cast through the rip and fell face down into the snow. She struggled to lift up her battered and violated body, while behind her, a powerful figure stared down at her.
"Well, Purgatori, m'dear," Lucifer sneered at her, "you were less fun than I remembered. Been there, done you, I guess...We'll leave you for the rising sun. Maybe your companion...what is her name? Rakshasa? No matter. Perhaps she'll be more fun. Her I'll keep for now."
Purgatori, though sorely beaten, still managed to hiss defiantly at him. "I will...make you crawl...before I am done!"
"I doubt that. You are done, farewell." And with that, the rift closed and Lucifer disappeared, leaving her alone in the cold wasteland.
Purgatori slowly struggled back to her feet, and looked to the east, where pale light could already be seen rising up over the horizon. Within her mind, a warm voice whispered to her. Yield our body to me, Purgatori! I can survive the coming sun! You cannot and we both will die!
Purgatori, overcome with rage and frustration, snarled aloud. "No! I do not choose to yield! Live or die, I will be myself and not some pitiful shadow of myself!"
On another plane of reality, within an inn that served a rather...rough...clientele, a woman with a patch over one eye, and feathered wings at her shoulders, tested her strength in an arm-wrestling contest against a large bearded warrior. Around them, several warriors, trolls and other less savoury types bet eagerly on the outcome.
"I tire, hundling!" cried the former valkyrie, Vulnavia. "Yes! Forty successful matches and at last, I tire!"
Suddenly, she slammed her opponent's fist down onto the table with obvious ease. "In fact, I am bored!"
Vulnavia threw back her head and laughed with joy. "Ha! More ale! More ale, I say, and a new opponent to test my mettle!"
A man approached at her words. Even in this place, the man was clearly out of place. He wore a leather jacket and a wide-brimmed hat, and his face was nothing but a fleshless skull. "Reckon that's me, darlin'."
"You?" Vulnavia snickered playfully. "I'll break you in two, boney man!"
The boney man sat down opposite her and gripped her hand. "Name's Bedlam. Don't worry it much. We ain't stayin' long enough for you t'hurt me."
Suddenly, there was a flash of light, and the patrons of the inn cried out in surprise as the two of them disappeared.
Back on Earth, Lady Death led Gallows and the others to the abandoned church that served as her Sanctuary. Upon entering, they found Cremator, and Brock, mystic craftsmen, awaiting them. Also there was Vandala, valkyrie and Lady Death's sister.
They immediately began to discuss their common problems. Jade questioned Oblivia on the nature of the drug being sold at her gigs.
"Serge was running the drugs, not me," Oblivia protested. "I don't get down with that stuff. I tossed his drug dealing ass out tonight on account of it."
Lady Death glared at her with open suspicion. "How...convenient."
Chastity stood up beside Oblivia. "Hey, it's okay, kid. I believe you. Us fangy types need to stick together."
"Hey, lady, don't do me no favours," Oblivia told her. "Just because we got fangs don't make us sisters."
"We can test her words." Lady Death held out her towards the corpse of the Russian werewolf that was laid out on the floor, and the body floated up into the air. "Speak!" she told it. "The mistress of the dead commands you! Who provided you with the drugs you sold tonight?"
The corpse opened its mouth, while its head flopped horribly upon a broken neck. In a voice that gurgled on its own blood, the dead one spoke a single word. "Pagan."
And then the corpse suddenly burst into flame, and within moments all that remained was ash, that floated slowly to the floor.
"Pagan?" Bad Kitty asked aloud. "This ring a bell with anyone?"
Lady Death clenched her fists and snarled angrily. "A former Archduke of Hell! Save that there is no more Hell! I destroyed it!"
Vandala stepped forward. "This is what I came to tell you, sister," she interrupted. "My spies have told me that the lands the Archdukes ruled are gone as are the Archdukes themselves! Some major spell was worked but we cannot tell why!"
"Lady D saw Pagan over at the CODA house!" Chastity commented.
"Ties them to the new Messiah, NEOX." Gallows added. "What's their game?"
Suddenly, there was a bright flash of light in the middle of the floor, and out of the light two figures appeared. One of them was a valkyrie with an eye-patch, and the other was a man with a fleshless skull under a wide-brimmed hat. The skull-faced man introduced himself.
"Evening, folks. Bedlam express now arriving."
At the sight of the winged woman, Lady Death instantly leapt at her, while magically summoning her chaos-blade, Apocalypse, into her hand. "Vulnavia?!" she cried. "Traitor!"
Vulnavia made no move to defend herself. Instead, she dropped down onto her knees and bowed her head. "I submit to your judgement, sister," she spoke in a broken voice. "I allowed myself to become a vampire and a thrall to the bitch queen, Purgatori. I have purged myself of...that love. That obsession. That curse. I would make amends, if you allowed it..."
Lady Death glared at her, while she held her sword threateningly over her neck. Finally, she stepped back and caused Apocalypse to vanish. "Rise, Vulnavia," she told her. "You shall have that chance."
Vulnavia stood, and her face was filled with determination. Vandala ran forward. "Sister," Vulnavia greeted her, and with a cry of joy, Vandala embraced her.
Lady Death looked on. "I have myself learned something of running the gauntlet and returning," she murmured.
Bedlam lifted up his arm and tapped his unadorned wrist. "Lordy!" he exclaimed. "Lookit the time! Got one more on the party list and I'm late. She may be a quarter past crispy by now." And with that, he vanished.
At the arctic circle, Purgatori staggered through the cold waste, hissing her defiance as the eastern horizon rapidly grew brighter.
Release me! Said the voice in her mind. The sun comes up.
"No!" Purgatori howled in rage. "I defy the sun! I defy them all! I will prevail!"
Purgatori turned around, and was greeted by a skull-faced man in a leather jacket and hat, standing calmly in front of her.
"Y'know, Red – yer really gonna owe me for this one," he told her.
Back at Sanctuary, Vandala and Vulnavia were happily caught in discussion.
"But how did you free yourself from the vampire curse, sister?" Vandala asked her.
"It's a long story..."
Before Vulnavia could elaborate, Bedlam returned in a blinding flash, and with him was Purgatori, leaning weakly on his shoulder.
"Hey, kiddies...I'm back," he told them. "And I got the goods. A li'l worse for wear and singed about the edges, maybe..."
Upon realizing where she was, Purgatori, despite her weakness, shoved Bedlam away. "Male fool!" she cried. "You have delivered me into the hands of my enemies!
"And how I have lusted for your death!" Lady Death roared with rage. "To me, Apocalypse!" Lady Death summoned her mystic sword and prepared to charge at the winged vampire.
"No!" Gallows called out. "She was part of my vision! We'll need her if we're going to defeat whatever is behind all this!"
Jade stepped forward. "I have no love for the blood red bitch but I will separate them for you." The oriental vampire cast a spell, and a wave of emerald fire surged up between Lady Death and Purgatori, preventing them from reaching each other.
"In my house you would use sorcery against me, bitch?!" Lady Death snarled.
Purgatori turned away from the pale demi-goddess, and stalked towards the oriental vampire. "I will have blood and if it is not the albino then it will be yours!"
"Come if you dare," Jade replied calmly, "for we have our own score to settle! You are the one who conferred the vampire's kiss upon me and made me as I am."
"Hold, all of you!" Cremator's bellow caused everyone within the church to stare at him in surprise. "Mistress," he addressed Lady Death, "forgive me, but you must see this! All of you must! The windows mystically pierce time and space – look at what they show!"
All of them stare in horror at the mystical windows behind Cremator, windows that were enchanted to show important events throughout the cosmos. In one window, a green-skinned figure with horns and a silken veil over his face floated in the sky over an enormous steel bridge, and called upon powerful sorcery, summoning titanic reptilian beasts out of the ocean to attack the bridge, and everyone upon it.
"Behold where Séance, Hell's master of magic, attacks with water dragons," Cremator cried.
A spectral figure, appearing as a black-skinned detective, suddenly materialized beside him. "On Earth we call the place San Francisco!" spoke the ghost of Virgil Solomon.
In the second window, a monstrous centaur-like beast, a creature with the lower body of a nightmarish steed and the upper body of a man, armoured for battle, slaughtered dozens of people in a packed stadium.
"Hell's Archduke of War, Asteroth strikes directly against humans." Cremator continued.
"Locally, we know the place as Times Square!" Virgil added.
In the third and final window, a capering imp dressed up in like a medieval court jester, emblazoned with inverted crucifixes, played a sonorous dirge on a set of wooden pipes. All around the imp, huge figures that appeared to be composed of nothing but fire, set upon all the tower blocks around, slowly turning the city into an inferno.
"And Pagan, Hell's Jester, uses the Pipes of Pan to lure Flame Giants to destroy the heart of another city!" Cremator described the scene.
"There's definitely a hot time going down in Chicago tonight!" Virgil identified the place. "And it is going on right now!"
Lady Death stared at the scenes in confusion. "What madness has possessed them?! What do they hope to gain?! What is their plan?!"
"Not their plan!" Purgatori snarled. "Lucifer has returned!"
Lady Death turned around, and stared at her in contempt. "Nonsense. I destroyed Lucifer!"
"Then you did a poor job of it!" Purgatori cried. "He has returned! He is real! I was violated by him tonight!"
"To my mind, t'was no more than you deserved!" Vulnavia shouted at her. "How many have you raped with your vampire's kiss!"
Vandala barely managed to restrain Purgatori from tearing Vulnavia's throat out.
"If Lucifer lives," Lady Death turned away from the argument, "then his plan must fail, whatever it is. We must stop the Archdukes. I will take Asteroth."
"This Séance invokes the water dragons who should be mine to command," Jade spoke up. "I will stop him.
"Then that fool Pagan will fall to me and my sister!" Vulnavia declared. "By my blood and my life, I swear it!"
"I care nothing for all this!" Purgatori told them. My lover, Rakshasa, was taken by Lucifer and I will have her back!"
"My bodyguard and companion, Silence, is also missing," Jade said, thoughtfully. "I owe a debt to her."
Gallows held up a hand. "Look, maybe the rest of us can infiltrate that CODA house Chastity was at before, find out the connection between Neox and Lucifer, find out what happened to your two...friends."
Jade nodded in agreement, then looked at Purgatori. "In truth, I could use your help. I am a sorceress but Séance is a Lord of Hell."
"Alright," Purgatori relented. "I will aid you. But find my Rakshasa!"
With the debate settled, Lady Death turned to the windows and held out her hands. "I add my power to the windows..."
At her words, the shimmering visions became clear and solid.
"...and they become portals to take us to our foes! Quickly now! Let nothing but death stop you!"
Lady Death charged forward, and dived through the middle window, through the portal to the other side. Cremator, Guardian of Hell, immediately dived through after her. Jade ran through the window to the left, and was quickly followed by Purgatori. Vandala and Vulnavia both leapt through the right-side window together.
As the six of them disappeared, Bedlam stuck a cigarette between his lipless teeth and lit it up. "Well, you got your Dark Alliance, Gallows, ol' buddy, so why so hangdog?"
Gallows, with a worried expression on his face, replied. "I don't know. I have this bad feeling like somehow we're a step behind whatever is going down."
Elsewhere, a powerful figure with blood-red skin and fearsome horns sweeping up from his temples, reclined on a bed of skulls, while the demonic seductresses Demonica and Diabolica licked and caressed his massive body. In the air before them, a vision hovered within a ring of fire – a vision of Gallows.
"You flatter yourself, Morgan Gallows," Lucifer laughed sadistically. "You're not ever that close!"
Lady Death
Dark Alliance
Part Three: Frenzy
The oriental vampiress, Jade, her katana-wielding bodyguard, Silence, and the gun-toting Bad Kitty moved to stand back-to-back with each other, as Serge and his werewolf slaves slowly surrounded them, slavering hungrily. The walls of the warehouse echoed with their growls, along with the terrified cries of those few ravers who had not turned.
"You will find ordinary guns less than effective, I think," Jade warned her American companion.
"Great," replied Bad Kitty. "And here I left my silver bullets at home, kimo sabe. Only reason I came here was to meet a guy and he stands me up. I hate blind dates."
The Russian werewolf, Serge, chuckled. "Serge not mind picking you up but I am tired of dating the dead!"
Oblivia, the dj of this illegal rave, and a vampire herself, suddenly leapt down from the stage and slammed her boot into the werewolf's muzzle. "You bastard!" she cried. "You used me...used my gigs...as an excuse to peddle your drugs! And I am not dead! I'm undead, you moron!"
Oblivia charged at Serge but the werewolf caught her fist in his giant paw. "Selling drugs only reason Serge stay so long. Make you true dead now."
Suddenly, a burst of gunfire separates the two combatants. They look up in the direction from which the bullets had come, to see a big man with a long goatee standing above the skylight, aiming a heavy pistol at the werewolf.
"Serge," the newcomer growled. "I should've figured. Pull back. I'm packing hollow point silver bullets that will splatter your many hide all over this room."
"Gallows!" Serge howled. Hiding behind gun, eh? Not man enough, not wolf enough, to take me either way?"
Gallows squeezed the trigger, but instead of firing he tossed the gun away. "Screw that," he snarled, and dived down through the window. As he fell, shaggy fur burst out over his skin, his hands and feet became claws, and his head transformed into a fearsome wolfish muzzle. He landed on the floor directly in front of Serge and stood facing him, werewolf to werewolf.
"Damn thing just jammed on me anyway," Gallows growled. "Prefer to settle this between us tooth and claw!"
Gallows and Serge tore into each other, and at that signal, the entire warehouse erupted into savage battle. Serge's werewolf slaves leapt at their chosen victims, and Oblivia, Jade, Silence, and Bad Kitty fought back furiously. Oblivia fought with fang and claw, and took every opportunity to slam her heavy boots into their faces. Jade called upon her powerful sorcery to tear them apart. Silence sliced at them with her deadly katanas, and Bad Kitty filled many of the werewolves with enough lead to slow them down, despite her lack of silver.
But the defenders were heavily outnumbered, and forced to fight wildly just to survive. Jade managed to clear an area around her with her mystic bolts, and took a moment to look around desperately for her companion. "Silence!" she cried. "I cannot see my bodyguard, Silence!"
Bad Kitty, reloading quickly, called back over shoulder. "There's too many of them! They pulled her down and we're going next!"
Suddenly, there is a shout from above, and a woman with inhumanly pale skin and white hair, armed with a glowing sword and a sickle on a chain, flies down through the skylight window. A red-headed vampire leaps down behind her.
"This is the place I told you about!" the red-headed vampire known as Chastity calls to her companion. "Looks like they started the party without us!"
"The beasts attack those I have named allies!" the white-skinned woman cries in anger. "This is not to be endured."
The flying woman landed on the floor and, without a moment's hesitation, instantly leapt into the battle and sliced through a werewolf's head with her powerful chaos-blade, Apocalypse. "Back, hounds of Hell!" she roared. "Lady Death commands!"
While Lady Death launched into a frenzied attack, hacking at the werewolves savagely, Chastity leapt upon the back of another and began throttling it. "Down! Heel! Bad dog!"
With the reinforcements, the tide of battle turned and the werewolves were brutally massacred. Finally, only two remained, battling each other. Lady Death cast her golden sickle at one of them and the chain wrapped around its throat. With a savage tug, Lady Death snapped its neck.
Lady Death then stalked up to the last of the werewolves. "You!" she snarled. "You are the last one standing! The last blood to be shed!"
Chastity instantly leapt between them and held up her hands in a conciliatory gesture. "Whoa, Lady D! Actually, this is the guy we came to meet! This is Gallows!"
Gallows rumbled at her. "Pleased to meet you, Lady...Death, is it?"
Lady Death stared at him for a moment, then lowered her weapons and, with a thought, caused them to disappear into thin air.
"Hold on," Bad Kitty ran up to them. "I've met Lady Death and you're a bit...paler than her."
"I've assumed my true form," Lady Death replied, and as she did so, Bad Kitty's pet cat leapt up into her arms. "Ah, Lucky! Taking good care of the human, are you?"
Bad Kitty stared at her wonderingly. "Well, I guess if the cat vouches for you, you're okay."
At that moment, the wail of sirens came from outside, distant at first but approaching rapidly.
"Cops coming," Chastity said. "We should re-convene this meeting elsewhere."
"Agreed," Lady Death replied. "We'll use my Sanctuary. There is much that needs explanation!"
"Forget it!" Oblivia shook her head. "I'm not involved in this."
"The drug Xorcist I traced here," Jade told her. "Now my bodyguard is missing. You are very involved, Oblivia."
"This is not a request," Lady Death glared at the young vampire. "This is not a debate. You're coming, let's go."
Gallows, having returned to his human form, took out a cigar, stuck it between his teeth, and lit it up. "Too bad Serge is dead. He might've been able to tell us a lot."
Lady Death walked over to the corpse of the Russian werewolf, which has now reverted to a merely human corpse. Holding her hands above it, she levitates the body into the air with magic.
"We'll take him along. Sometimes it is easier to get the dead to talk than the living. We leave now."
At the top of the world, deep within the arctic desert, there was only silence. But then, with a horrid tearing sound, a rip appeared in the fabric of space. A red-skinned woman with wings, horns and fangs was cast through the rip and fell face down into the snow. She struggled to lift up her battered and violated body, while behind her, a powerful figure stared down at her.
"Well, Purgatori, m'dear," Lucifer sneered at her, "you were less fun than I remembered. Been there, done you, I guess...We'll leave you for the rising sun. Maybe your companion...what is her name? Rakshasa? No matter. Perhaps she'll be more fun. Her I'll keep for now."
Purgatori, though sorely beaten, still managed to hiss defiantly at him. "I will...make you crawl...before I am done!"
"I doubt that. You are done, farewell." And with that, the rift closed and Lucifer disappeared, leaving her alone in the cold wasteland.
Purgatori slowly struggled back to her feet, and looked to the east, where pale light could already be seen rising up over the horizon. Within her mind, a warm voice whispered to her. Yield our body to me, Purgatori! I can survive the coming sun! You cannot and we both will die!
Purgatori, overcome with rage and frustration, snarled aloud. "No! I do not choose to yield! Live or die, I will be myself and not some pitiful shadow of myself!"
On another plane of reality, within an inn that served a rather...rough...clientele, a woman with a patch over one eye, and feathered wings at her shoulders, tested her strength in an arm-wrestling contest against a large bearded warrior. Around them, several warriors, trolls and other less savoury types bet eagerly on the outcome.
"I tire, hundling!" cried the former valkyrie, Vulnavia. "Yes! Forty successful matches and at last, I tire!"
Suddenly, she slammed her opponent's fist down onto the table with obvious ease. "In fact, I am bored!"
Vulnavia threw back her head and laughed with joy. "Ha! More ale! More ale, I say, and a new opponent to test my mettle!"
A man approached at her words. Even in this place, the man was clearly out of place. He wore a leather jacket and a wide-brimmed hat, and his face was nothing but a fleshless skull. "Reckon that's me, darlin'."
"You?" Vulnavia snickered playfully. "I'll break you in two, boney man!"
The boney man sat down opposite her and gripped her hand. "Name's Bedlam. Don't worry it much. We ain't stayin' long enough for you t'hurt me."
Suddenly, there was a flash of light, and the patrons of the inn cried out in surprise as the two of them disappeared.
Back on Earth, Lady Death led Gallows and the others to the abandoned church that served as her Sanctuary. Upon entering, they found Cremator, and Brock, mystic craftsmen, awaiting them. Also there was Vandala, valkyrie and Lady Death's sister.
They immediately began to discuss their common problems. Jade questioned Oblivia on the nature of the drug being sold at her gigs.
"Serge was running the drugs, not me," Oblivia protested. "I don't get down with that stuff. I tossed his drug dealing ass out tonight on account of it."
Lady Death glared at her with open suspicion. "How...convenient."
Chastity stood up beside Oblivia. "Hey, it's okay, kid. I believe you. Us fangy types need to stick together."
"Hey, lady, don't do me no favours," Oblivia told her. "Just because we got fangs don't make us sisters."
"We can test her words." Lady Death held out her towards the corpse of the Russian werewolf that was laid out on the floor, and the body floated up into the air. "Speak!" she told it. "The mistress of the dead commands you! Who provided you with the drugs you sold tonight?"
The corpse opened its mouth, while its head flopped horribly upon a broken neck. In a voice that gurgled on its own blood, the dead one spoke a single word. "Pagan."
And then the corpse suddenly burst into flame, and within moments all that remained was ash, that floated slowly to the floor.
"Pagan?" Bad Kitty asked aloud. "This ring a bell with anyone?"
Lady Death clenched her fists and snarled angrily. "A former Archduke of Hell! Save that there is no more Hell! I destroyed it!"
Vandala stepped forward. "This is what I came to tell you, sister," she interrupted. "My spies have told me that the lands the Archdukes ruled are gone as are the Archdukes themselves! Some major spell was worked but we cannot tell why!"
"Lady D saw Pagan over at the CODA house!" Chastity commented.
"Ties them to the new Messiah, NEOX." Gallows added. "What's their game?"
Suddenly, there was a bright flash of light in the middle of the floor, and out of the light two figures appeared. One of them was a valkyrie with an eye-patch, and the other was a man with a fleshless skull under a wide-brimmed hat. The skull-faced man introduced himself.
"Evening, folks. Bedlam express now arriving."
At the sight of the winged woman, Lady Death instantly leapt at her, while magically summoning her chaos-blade, Apocalypse, into her hand. "Vulnavia?!" she cried. "Traitor!"
Vulnavia made no move to defend herself. Instead, she dropped down onto her knees and bowed her head. "I submit to your judgement, sister," she spoke in a broken voice. "I allowed myself to become a vampire and a thrall to the bitch queen, Purgatori. I have purged myself of...that love. That obsession. That curse. I would make amends, if you allowed it..."
Lady Death glared at her, while she held her sword threateningly over her neck. Finally, she stepped back and caused Apocalypse to vanish. "Rise, Vulnavia," she told her. "You shall have that chance."
Vulnavia stood, and her face was filled with determination. Vandala ran forward. "Sister," Vulnavia greeted her, and with a cry of joy, Vandala embraced her.
Lady Death looked on. "I have myself learned something of running the gauntlet and returning," she murmured.
Bedlam lifted up his arm and tapped his unadorned wrist. "Lordy!" he exclaimed. "Lookit the time! Got one more on the party list and I'm late. She may be a quarter past crispy by now." And with that, he vanished.
At the arctic circle, Purgatori staggered through the cold waste, hissing her defiance as the eastern horizon rapidly grew brighter.
Release me! Said the voice in her mind. The sun comes up.
"No!" Purgatori howled in rage. "I defy the sun! I defy them all! I will prevail!"
Purgatori turned around, and was greeted by a skull-faced man in a leather jacket and hat, standing calmly in front of her.
"Y'know, Red – yer really gonna owe me for this one," he told her.
Back at Sanctuary, Vandala and Vulnavia were happily caught in discussion.
"But how did you free yourself from the vampire curse, sister?" Vandala asked her.
"It's a long story..."
Before Vulnavia could elaborate, Bedlam returned in a blinding flash, and with him was Purgatori, leaning weakly on his shoulder.
"Hey, kiddies...I'm back," he told them. "And I got the goods. A li'l worse for wear and singed about the edges, maybe..."
Upon realizing where she was, Purgatori, despite her weakness, shoved Bedlam away. "Male fool!" she cried. "You have delivered me into the hands of my enemies!
"And how I have lusted for your death!" Lady Death roared with rage. "To me, Apocalypse!" Lady Death summoned her mystic sword and prepared to charge at the winged vampire.
"No!" Gallows called out. "She was part of my vision! We'll need her if we're going to defeat whatever is behind all this!"
Jade stepped forward. "I have no love for the blood red bitch but I will separate them for you." The oriental vampire cast a spell, and a wave of emerald fire surged up between Lady Death and Purgatori, preventing them from reaching each other.
"In my house you would use sorcery against me, bitch?!" Lady Death snarled.
Purgatori turned away from the pale demi-goddess, and stalked towards the oriental vampire. "I will have blood and if it is not the albino then it will be yours!"
"Come if you dare," Jade replied calmly, "for we have our own score to settle! You are the one who conferred the vampire's kiss upon me and made me as I am."
"Hold, all of you!" Cremator's bellow caused everyone within the church to stare at him in surprise. "Mistress," he addressed Lady Death, "forgive me, but you must see this! All of you must! The windows mystically pierce time and space – look at what they show!"
All of them stare in horror at the mystical windows behind Cremator, windows that were enchanted to show important events throughout the cosmos. In one window, a green-skinned figure with horns and a silken veil over his face floated in the sky over an enormous steel bridge, and called upon powerful sorcery, summoning titanic reptilian beasts out of the ocean to attack the bridge, and everyone upon it.
"Behold where Séance, Hell's master of magic, attacks with water dragons," Cremator cried.
A spectral figure, appearing as a black-skinned detective, suddenly materialized beside him. "On Earth we call the place San Francisco!" spoke the ghost of Virgil Solomon.
In the second window, a monstrous centaur-like beast, a creature with the lower body of a nightmarish steed and the upper body of a man, armoured for battle, slaughtered dozens of people in a packed stadium.
"Hell's Archduke of War, Asteroth strikes directly against humans." Cremator continued.
"Locally, we know the place as Times Square!" Virgil added.
In the third and final window, a capering imp dressed up in like a medieval court jester, emblazoned with inverted crucifixes, played a sonorous dirge on a set of wooden pipes. All around the imp, huge figures that appeared to be composed of nothing but fire, set upon all the tower blocks around, slowly turning the city into an inferno.
"And Pagan, Hell's Jester, uses the Pipes of Pan to lure Flame Giants to destroy the heart of another city!" Cremator described the scene.
"There's definitely a hot time going down in Chicago tonight!" Virgil identified the place. "And it is going on right now!"
Lady Death stared at the scenes in confusion. "What madness has possessed them?! What do they hope to gain?! What is their plan?!"
"Not their plan!" Purgatori snarled. "Lucifer has returned!"
Lady Death turned around, and stared at her in contempt. "Nonsense. I destroyed Lucifer!"
"Then you did a poor job of it!" Purgatori cried. "He has returned! He is real! I was violated by him tonight!"
"To my mind, t'was no more than you deserved!" Vulnavia shouted at her. "How many have you raped with your vampire's kiss!"
Vandala barely managed to restrain Purgatori from tearing Vulnavia's throat out.
"If Lucifer lives," Lady Death turned away from the argument, "then his plan must fail, whatever it is. We must stop the Archdukes. I will take Asteroth."
"This Séance invokes the water dragons who should be mine to command," Jade spoke up. "I will stop him.
"Then that fool Pagan will fall to me and my sister!" Vulnavia declared. "By my blood and my life, I swear it!"
"I care nothing for all this!" Purgatori told them. My lover, Rakshasa, was taken by Lucifer and I will have her back!"
"My bodyguard and companion, Silence, is also missing," Jade said, thoughtfully. "I owe a debt to her."
Gallows held up a hand. "Look, maybe the rest of us can infiltrate that CODA house Chastity was at before, find out the connection between Neox and Lucifer, find out what happened to your two...friends."
Jade nodded in agreement, then looked at Purgatori. "In truth, I could use your help. I am a sorceress but Séance is a Lord of Hell."
"Alright," Purgatori relented. "I will aid you. But find my Rakshasa!"
With the debate settled, Lady Death turned to the windows and held out her hands. "I add my power to the windows..."
At her words, the shimmering visions became clear and solid.
"...and they become portals to take us to our foes! Quickly now! Let nothing but death stop you!"
Lady Death charged forward, and dived through the middle window, through the portal to the other side. Cremator, Guardian of Hell, immediately dived through after her. Jade ran through the window to the left, and was quickly followed by Purgatori. Vandala and Vulnavia both leapt through the right-side window together.
As the six of them disappeared, Bedlam stuck a cigarette between his lipless teeth and lit it up. "Well, you got your Dark Alliance, Gallows, ol' buddy, so why so hangdog?"
Gallows, with a worried expression on his face, replied. "I don't know. I have this bad feeling like somehow we're a step behind whatever is going down."
Elsewhere, a powerful figure with blood-red skin and fearsome horns sweeping up from his temples, reclined on a bed of skulls, while the demonic seductresses Demonica and Diabolica licked and caressed his massive body. In the air before them, a vision hovered within a ring of fire – a vision of Gallows.
"You flatter yourself, Morgan Gallows," Lucifer laughed sadistically. "You're not ever that close!"