1Chapter Four: Face Off

Seras watched in confusion as Sara dragged Lui back. He had silver handcuffs burning his wrists, and seemed to be reluctantly accepting his fate.

"What's going on?" She asked, looking at Kyle.

He was smiling still, but the humor had faded. It was a grim smile, and it was slowly turning into a frown, "Now you'll know what I mean when I told you you haven't seen Sara mad. Well, mad isn't quite the term."

All of the vampires gathered round. They all knew what was going to happen. Everyone but Seras. Sara pulled Lui to his feet, and told him evenly.

"Luis Thomson, you have purposefully disobeyed direct orders given to you by me, Master Vampire of the Americas. Do you deny this?"

Lui sighed and shook his head, "No."

"Do you have any words to say in your defense?"

"I was right wasn't I?"

The older vampire glared at him, "Whether you were right or wrong is not the question. Do you have any evidence to suggest that you had knowledge before your actions to suggest that braking those orders was an appropriate course of action?"

Lui looked at the ground, "No."

"Then you will suffer the consequences of-"

"I will suffer the consequences of my actions, I know. I knew that when I snuck out of the base. I knew that when I stole the aircraft. I knew that when I flew over London. I know the consequences of my actions. Just get it over with."

There was silence for the longest time. No one moved, at all. Not even Anderson or Walter.

Then Sara rushed forward and delivered an uppercut to Lui's gut, lifting him off the ground. He gasped, his eyes going wide. She brought he leg up, then smashed it back down in an ax-kick that must have shattered his entire left shoulder area.

She bent over and picked him up with her right arm, delivering rapid jabs to his face, chest, and stomach with her left, then kicked him away.

Seras watched, horrified, "What is she doing?"

Kyle stopped her from moving forward, "Don't try and interfere. She's is just doing what she must."

"But he didn't do anything wrong!"

"On the contrary, he did. By breaking her orders so blatantly he sends a message that she cannot control those under her. It was a very bad thing to do, and Lui knows it. Sara wanted to move in as much as he did, but she ordered no one to move, because if nothing was wrong it could have been interpreted as a hostile attack. Everyone knew something was up, but no one dared move. In a way, Lui did her a favor. With him here, she had to come get him. She had an excuse, and now she knows for sure the situation needs our attention. And believe me, they are a very tight pair. Mother to son. Son to mother. It hurts her to do this to him. But then again, I do think he'll be hurting more than she will when this is over. And besides, she is rather ticked off at him at the moment."

Lui got another kick to the stomach, and started coughing up blood. His was a pulp, bones broken, body beaten, eyes unfocused. He went down on his knees in front of his former master, and though no one could really tell, smiled.

She looked into his eyes, knowing that he was still watching her intently. They had a conversation in a single moment.

Your welcome-

I'm not going to thank you Luis. Though, you did make things easier. Still, you disobeyed seven direct orders. Seven. You know I couldn't let that slide-

I know-

Still, I wonder why you would risk your life, knowing full well this would happen if you survived...-

Lui glanced over at Seras. Darn it, she didn't even look sympathetic any more. She looked amused now.

Sara caught his gaze, then glanced over herself. She smiled softly, so no one could tell, Ah, I see. Luis, I never knew you were so chivalrous-

Believe me, neither did I-

Sara turned around, then glanced back at him, See you in a few hours Luis Thomson-

And with that, she swung around and kicked him in the side of the head.

LATER (12 HOURS)

Lui opened his eyes slowly. He blinked, then tried to move. He almost emmediatly gasped in pain, "That wasn't a good idea..."

He looked down at his arms. They hurt like crap, but they still worked. As did his legs apparently. Thank God for small favors.

Then he looked around to see where he was. It was underground...

Had they really taken him back to the ammo depot from before?

Yes, they had. After all he had gone through to get away, they had taken him back. Ironic. Of course, this probably meant the fight was already underway. And it would be a while before he was back in it sadly.

The door opened, and a very familiar face poked through. He was smiling, "You know, you should really stop making Sara mad Lui."

"Shut up Johnny." Lui mumbled, then tried to get into a more comfortable position, "Where were you by the way? I didn't see you at my regular beat-down."

"Ah, I was redirected to South America at the last second. Something about Nazi vampires, I didn't find anything. So, how did things go?"

Lui told him the bare details, leaving out the bit about using his dark powers completely. He didn't want to talk about that at all at the moment. Not with Johnny anyway.

"So, did Sara take it easy on you or what?"

"What do you mean?"

"Your face hardly has a scratch on it."

Really? Great. Lui didn't care, it still hurt. But, it was hurting less and less all of the sudden. He managed to get into a sitting position. Wait, he shouldn't have been able to do that. He should be incapable of movement on the floor.

"So bro, I see you've finally found yourself a girl..." Johnny began, using that same infernal taunting tone Lui had grown to dread. It was about the only thing Johnny could get on his case about, so he did it spectacularly.

"Don't start with me Johnny. I'm not in the mood for this."

Johnny faked looking hurt, "So do you want me to go and fetch your little lady? Do you prefer her company over your brother's?"

Lui shot him a look, "Maybe."

Johnny smiled. They knew each other too well to actually take anything the other one said seriously. But Johnny did turn to go, "Oh ya, Kyle wants to talk to you. You up for it?"

"Ya, why not. You know, it's almost like you guys are paying respects to a corpse."

"Bro, you are a corpse."

Johnny walked out, and a few seconds later Kyle walked in, grinning, "That was a quick recovery. You should still be unconscious."

"Really? How long was I out?"

"Only about twelve hours actually. That's an insanely short amount of time when I think about it. Sara didn't hold back at all on you this time."

Lui looked at the ceiling. He felt more comfortable around Kyle than Johnny about some things. The older vampire was the one to turn to for advice, and council. Lui sighed, and said, "I did it."

"What?"

"I awakened my powers. All of them."

Kyle's eyebrows shot up, "Your dark powers? The shadow form powers?"

Lui nodded. Kyle rose to his feet slowly, "Lui, it took me four hundred years to gain those powers. Ivan was about three hundred and seventy when he gained his. Sara acquired hers at three hundred. Lui, you are two hundred."

"I know."

"How? How did you control it? How on Earth could you possibly have the strength to control it? What drove you to summon it at all?"

"I-I, saw Seras in danger. She was hurt, and I just got mad. I don't know what happened next, it just did. Suddenly I was fighting a dark version of myself for control of my mind. I was losing, bad. I didn't know how to win. I couldn't kill it, and even if I had the power to, I would have died with it. Nothing seemed to work. Then Seras, she came. She knew that if I lost she would be lost in my mind forever, but she still came to help. My 'dark half' let a vital clue slip. He said that it was his mind now. That made me realize that he was fighting to take my place in control. I still had the power. Seras and I combined our powers and banished him to my nightmares. I can still feel him nagging in the back of my head though. Is that normal? I mean, did I do everything right? Or am I likely to go homicidal at any second?"

"Lui, you're pacing."

The American stopped, and looked down. Darn it, he was pacing. Wait, he was walking? He couldn't move a few minutes ago. Kyle stood up, smiling, and put a hand on Lui's shoulder, "If it ever does attempt to take over again, you know how to beat it. Lui, you've now become what is called a True Master. You have taken the last great step in vampire development. That we know about that is. You heal faster, much faster. Stronger, faster, your senses will be heightened even more. Think mini Alucard."

"You mean, I can..."

"No, and don't try it. I said mini-Alucard. No vampire can compare his or herself to him and honestly say they stand much of a chance. None that I've met anyway. I stopped kidding myself, I would last about a minute, two at most against him. Still, your progress is extraordinary. A little over two hundred and controlling the shadow form. That is impressive."

"Thanks. But why did I heal so suddenly just now? I mean, I sleep for twelve hours, wake up immobile, and five minutes later I'm walking around. How does that work?"

"Got me with that one. I guess you were still adjusting to your new form while you were sleeping. But hey, why dwell on it?"

"Right. Hey, I think I figured it out."

"Figured what out?"

"Average vampire age to gain familiars is around a hundred right?"

"Ya, in that area."

"I only gained mine about a year ago. A hundred years late. So then it would make some sense that I would get my other powers a hundred years early."

"Hmmm, that's possible. I guess you aren't some freakishly powerful vampire then are you?"

Lui stopped, then his shoulders slumped. His hopes and dreams, smashed by himself and his own logic. Ironic, "Darn. I guess I am nothing but an anomaly. Oh well, do we have any blood for a thirsty vampire?"

Kyle nodded quickly, "Of course. And you're just in time actually."

"Just in time for what?"

"The battle of course. We are going to take back London. You up for this?"

"I don't know. I guess." Lui said as they walked out of the bunker.

"You guess?"

"Well, I don't know really. I'm all for taking it to those stupid FREAKs, but it may trigger that thing to come and try to take over again."

"Who knows? Maybe, maybe not. Of course you'll be angry at yourself for not going later if you can."

"That's true. Alright then, let's do this."

Johnny walked up beside him, "Congrats on the powers man."

Lui looked over at him, smiling, "Eavesdropping?"

His brother shook his head, "Are you kidding? I sensed it off you a mile away, even though no one else did."

Lui laughed. His brother did know him well. He then realized, "Hey, you guys need to teach me how to sword fight."

"Why? I thought you didn't like swords."

"Because, in a few hundred years when Johnny gets all his powers we can all have swords and dress up as the three musketeers for Halloween. All for one,"

"And one for all!" They finished together, with much bravado followed by laughter.

"Ah! I see you are walking again comrade!"

Russian walked up to them, "I see those healing powers kicked in yes?"

"Ya. Hey, something has been bothering me. Why were you in England?"

Smiling, he explained, "Comrade, I have no 'master' looking over my shoulder telling me what to do. In Russia, we walk individual and free. When I heard about this so called 'terrorist attack', well, it doesn't take a genius to figure out when something odd is going on eh?"

"Sounds nice being able what you want to do all the time."

"It is not as fun as one might think comrade."

"Lui!"

At this new voice the American began to search himself, "I swear, do I have a homing beacon planted on me? How is all of you know exactly where to find me?"

Seras ran up to him, "Are you alright?"

"Fine. Though I don't see why you care, when I looked you seemed rather happy about the entire situation."

Kyle sniggered to himself. Seras explained, "Oh, he was describing to me the other times this has happened to you. Like when Johnny almost started an all out war and managed to put all the blame on you."

Lui gritted his teeth angrily. Everyone knew it was Johnny who had caused that black out. Moscow had been without electricity for three months. Everyone knew it was Johnny, except for the Russians. They thought it was the pre-curser to an attack, the Russian vampires thought it was an underhanded trick so the Americans could take over their country. Johnny thought it was funny as heck. Especially when he had hid rubber gloves, wire cutters, and other such equipment in Lui's room.

For once the American had been innocent. And everyone but the Russians knew it. So they ordered Sara to beat some sense into Lui, and they wouldn't accept anything else.

Lui deftly reached over and smacked Johnny in the back of the head.

When they reached a small hastily constructed building they walked in. Sara was there, organizing everything. She gasped when she looked up and saw Lui, "But how are you..."

"Let's just say I'm all grown up." Lui told her, crossing his arms, "So then, when do we attack?"

It took a moment for Sara to figure out what he meant. But when she did her face lit up, and she grinned, "We attack as soon as possible. What are you idiots standing around for, go get ready! We can't be caught standing around like a bunch of slackers! Move it!"

LATER

The FREAKs had no idea what was going on. First they had been pursuing two rouge enemy vampires. Fair enough. Then they had been decimated by what survivors could only describe as a 'black demon'. Ok, that was weird but continuing. Then something else appeared and started picking them off one by one. None of them could put any of these things in a logical order.

All they knew for sure was something was very, very wrong.

Some of the citizens of the city who had only been taken prisoner heard the talk of trouble up north. Their hopes flared. But they knew enough that any move on their part would be foolhardy at best. Downright suicide at worst. So they waited, in silent anticipation.

The FREAKs, not taking any chances, decided to post a watch around the edge of the city. No one protested, or even complained. Everyone was armed and ready to go, no matter what happened next.

Or so they thought.

Until they saw a man in a black coat walk up the road towards them. He had a large black case slung across his shoulders, and he merrily whistled 'Yankee Doodle' as he walked.

They froze when they saw him. No one was sure what to do. They weren't sure if they should shoot, run, or just sit and wait.

So by default, they waited. In fact, he walked right through the barricade as the stunned FREAKs watched. He stopped, set the case down, and started walking back, tipping an imaginary hat to one of them as he did.

As he walked away from the city, the FREAKs slowly began to move to the case. One of them even began the process of opening it.

Lui stopped, and pulled a small device from his coat. He stopped whistling long enough to mutter, "Fire in the hole."

Wind, dust and debris flew past him, causing his coat to billow wildly. He tossed the detonator away and turned. The entire block was leveled. Well, what was left of it that is.

"C4. Is there any problem it can't fix?"

He jumped onto the large pile of debris, and smirked. It would take his allies a minute or so to get to him. The explosion was the signal to attack, but he asked they stayed away to give him time to test his new powers. To compare mental notes as it were.

He watched as a horde of FREAKs rushed down the street at him. He chuckled and pulled out to pistols. Then he used his vampire speed to pull out two more. He frowned, then his smile returned. He now drew out an additional two pistols. His arms were a blur from holding the six weapons.

"It was four before. I could get used to this."

Then he opened fire. Far faster than any normal human could fire. In fact, far faster than most anything else could fire. The stream of silver was solid, almost like a sword. He cut down the first line of FREAKs, then just started firing wildly in their direction. The artificial vampires dived for cover, scrambling in a panicked manner.

Lui glanced down at the rapidly growing piles of shells and clips gathering around him. It was a nice trick, but he would run out of ammo soon. So he put away four of the weapons, and held one in each hand. He started spinning them around on his fingers, and did pistol acrobatics (Revolver Ocelot would be put to shame), tossing them back and forth between his hands, behind his back, moving from finger to finger.

Stopping his display, he nodded happily. Using more than two pistols was a nice trick, but it just didn't feel as natural.

Suddenly one of the braver FREAKs jumped out from cover and opened fire with his assault rifle, screaming a battle cry madly.

Lui watched the bullets approach, and started to dodge. Then it occurred to him to try something. He aimed his pistols and fired. Sparks appeared in mid air for seemingly no apparent reason. Lui smirked and aimed one pistol upwards, firing a final time. Sparks formed inches from his forehead. He reached out with one hand, and a lump of metal fell into it. It hissed slightly and a small stream of smoke drifted upwards. The American laughed as he let it fall to the ground.

"I can shoot bullets in mid-air now! Ah man, Johnny is going to be so jealous."

He sounded like a kid in a toy store with a 'get everything free' card.

The FREAK stared at him, amazed. 'Did that just happen?' was his last thought before a silver bullet lodged itself in the artificial vampire's head.

Lui fired a few more shots at the FREAKs as they tried to attack, then his guns clicked empty. His hands went to his coat, and found he had used all his pistol ammo. He rolled his eyes angrily as he put his pistols in their holsters with the others, and began to assemble his rifle. When it was complete, he decided to do some acrobatics with it as well.

He twirled it between his fingers, seemingly unaware of it's weight. He tossed it upwards high into the air, spinning madly, and caught it in his other hand, instantly starting to twirl it again. He switched it to his wrist and deftly spun it there. He switched hands, then let it roll up one shoulder, around his neck, and down the other. He caught it, and smiled. Ah, he felt like Dante. The FREAKs were staring at him, in awe of the display. Vampiric agility plus decades of free time equals some pretty amazing crap.

He raised the weapon to shoulder height, and fired, killing one of the FREAKs. That broke the spell, and they opened fire simultaneously. Lui leapt high into the air, and yelled down to them a slightly revised prayer.

"In the name of God, impure souls of the unworthy undead shall be banished into eternal damnation! Aaaa-men!". He punctuated 'men' with a downward thrust into a vampire, killing it instantly. He used his rifle to do a type of pole vault over the heads of some FREAKs, landing in the center of a group of them. He stabbed one, then used his rifle to redirect the shot of another one into the crowd. Getting a good aim, he thrust forward through the FREAK's heart with his rifle's bayonet. One of the tried an overhead with a knife from behind Lui, but he brought the butt of his rifle back to strike the FREAK in the stomach. It doubled over, coughing up blood, before Lui spun the rifle and stabbed. The American took out a few more, but found himself completely surrounded with a lot of barrels pointed at him.

"Time to die!"

They all turned when they heard a whistle, and a voice say, "Yo, guys, over here."

There stood Lui, leaning against a building. They looked where he had been, and found only a grenade falling slowly to the ground. They turned to run, but it exploded, the silver killing them all in one blast.

"Show off."

The American turned to see his brother walking up, shaking his head. Kyle was right behind him, "That was good. Nice 'phase away but leave a doppleganger' trick. But keep up that, and you'll exhaust yourself quickly."

Lui shrugged, "I would shoot them, but I accidentally used all my pistol ammo. And honestly my rifle is better for sniping than anything."

"Sniping comrade? That toy is no sniper rifle."

They turned to see Russian walking towards them, a large item across his shoulders. He presented it to them, saying, "This, is a sniper rifle."

It was six feet long, with a massive scope and a long, thick barrel. The Russian set one end on the ground, and leaned on it, "Still, I to must applaud your performance comrade. These cheap copies never stood a chance eh?"

Suddenly an incredibly loud gunshot was heard, and they jumped back as a massive shell whizzed past. It hit further down the street, exploding among a group of approaching ghouls.

Sara and Seras were standing a little ways away. Sara sighed and rubbed her temples, "Men. They can sit around and talk all day long. I guess it's up to us right?"

Seras nodded, shouldered her cannon, and the two women walked by them, "Come on you yanks and Russian, in case you haven't noticed there's still a battle to fight."

The Russian's jaw dropped, "You mean she actually uses that monstrosity comrade?"

Lui shrugged, and readied his rifle, "What can I say? She's quite a lady."

Kyle and Johnny drew their swords. The Russian cocked his sniper rifle. They jogged up beside Sara and Seras as the other fifty or so American vampires followed behind them.

The six walked through a tunnel-thing. When they came out the other side, they saw a huge mob of FREAKs in front of them, weapons ready.

Seras reloaded her cannon, and Sara drew two silver-headed tomahawks. They all glanced at each other, smiling.

It was Lui who moved first. He pointed his bayonet forward, and charged with the words, "LET'S ROCK!"