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Infinity Verse Spotlight
Elsa Frankenstein: Dead In The Water
The sound of Sebastian Bach's 5th symphony echoed throughout the confines of Elsa's laboratory as she continued her work. The work in question was attaching a new right arm to her body, which was difficult to do so since she wasn't quite as skilled with her left arm, or better put, this left arm. She had her previous appendage shot off by a sniper bullet from a terrorist's gun before Phantasma could get to the shooter in time. Since she and her fellow monstrous teammates had been reformed under the Global Justice Network as Task Force M, [1] the Frankenstein monster had replaced seven arms, three eyeballs, five legs, two hearts and her womanhood after a grenade fell in between her legs due to Winnie's carelessness. Fortunately for Elsa, her new employers gave her more than enough cadavers to find the right spare parts she needed to repair any damage she took on the field.
Elsa was no stranger to playing mix and match with her body, for she had taken her fair share of brutal hits during her days as a student in Ms. Grimwood's school. From being stabbed by monster hunters to being ripped in half by eldritch nightmares from beyond the void, the young Frankenstein had her fair share of battle scars. In those days however, Elsa was a much different person back then. Not as refined as she was now. She was once a dull-witted bruiser who merely destroyed everything in her path, but that changed when she switched her defective brain for one that was much more suitable for her. With this new brain, she had intellect and grace that matched her barbaric strength. If only her grandfather, Victor, could see her now. A true bearer of the Frankenstein name.
Just then, Elsa heard the door to her lab open to reveal Winnie stepping inside.
"Hey," she greeted simply. "Just wanted to check on you."
"While I appreciate your concern, Winnifred, it's of no cause for alarm on my behalf," Elsa assured. "I was just about finished with the adjustments to this new appendage. I must say, it was rather vexing to get the measurements right for this arm since it was two inches longer than my left arm, but I believe I've rectified the error."
Winnie stayed silent for a few moments as her face became one of confusion, leading Elsa to become concerned about her.
"My friend, why the foreboding countenance?" she inquired.
"I'm still not used to it," the werewolf said. "The new you, I mean. I'm still not used to you being an egg-head."
"I must admit that it does come as a bit of a shock. Even I was taken aback by the rush of knowledge that struck my newly acquired mind when I first awoke after I had it placed in this patch-work body of mine"
"I'll bet," Winnie mentioned. "But if I'm being honest, I liked it better when you were dumb."
Elsa stopped what she was doing and narrowed her eyes at the werewolf after hearing that remark.
"You mean, you preferred it when you had someone to mock," the patch-work girl corrected in a stern voice. "I may have a new brain, but all my past memoirs are all still a part of me. I can recall all the cruel pranks you pulled on me, all the foul words you called me, and every time you thought it would be fun to degrade me for my lack of intellect with a simple riddle or puzzle."
Elsa then stood up from her seat with her new arm attached as she slowly approached the werewolf, who backed up slowly as the seven and a half foot tall woman approached her.
"You may have liked me as an idiot before, but I never did," she continued in cold voice. "You may be my friend, Winnie, and you may have thought it was all in good fun to insult me like you did, but I'm a much different person than the fool you teased back in school. Both mentally..."
Else then grabbed Winnie by the shirt and hoisted her into the air to look her dead in the eye.
"And physically," she furthered. "I trust I've made my point?"
"You got five seconds to put me down, stretch," Winnie warned her. "Or you're gonna need a whole new set of body parts."
"I'll take that as a yes," Elsa said before dropping her friend to the floor. "Do not make me have this discussion again."
The she-wolf glared back up at the giant as she let out a growl, all the while Elsa glowered back down at her. Just then, the door opened once more reveal Sibella entering the room.
"Ah, you're both here," she began. "We have another assignment. Suit up. Mission briefing is in ten minutes."
"Good, I need something to maul," Winnie grunted.
Elsa and Winnie entered the briefing room after they had put on their GJN uniforms. They found the rest of the team there waiting for them, who had also suited up as well. While Sibella and Tanis sat down in their chairs, Phantasma floated in a laying motion in mid-air with her hands behind her head as if she was laying on an invisible hammock. At the front of the room with a screen behind him was the team's leader, Will Du. As Elsa and Winnie entered the room, Will spoke up.
"Welcome back, ladies," he greeted in his usual firm voice. "We've been given another mission by Dr. Director to carry out. So, as always, you all know the rules."
"Run the mission. Kill everyone you see. Don't get caught," Winnie listed off.
"Those aren't the rules, Winnie," Will reminded her.
"They are for me, boy scout," the werewolf replied with a smirk.
Will narrowed his eyes at the she-wolf. It was no secret that Task Force M and its human leader didn't exactly see eye to eye most of the time. The former Grimwood girls fought humans who hunted and butchered monsters out of fear and the thrill of the hunt, so to be working for one wasn't exactly their cup of tea, but they managed to work together out of respect for Agent Du and Dr. Director, who saw that they were more than capable as an elite fighting force. Will didn't have much love for his new team either, but, like it or not, they were his team and he would work with them until he was given new orders or until he died. Task Force M was known by only a handful of members within the GJN, so it was unlikely that they'd be split up any time soon, meaning they were basically stuck together.
"What exactly is the mission, sir?" Sibella asked.
Their leader stepped aside as the screen behind him formed an image for the team to see. It was what looked like satellite images of a cruise ship that was out in the middle of the ocean.
"Three days ago, one of GJN's operatives, Special Agent Miles Kovac, boarded the cruise ship, The Annabelle Lee. It's a pleasure cruise for the extremely wealthy that was meant to sail from Miami to Madrid"
"But why would a GJN agent be among the upper crust of society?" Elsa questioned.
"Maybe Global Justice are investigating how old folks still bang?" Phantasma commented with a laugh.
"Agent Kovac was sent there to gather intel on what was transpiring onboard the Annabelle Lee," their leader answered. "We had heard rumors that there was going to be exhibition of some sort during the cruise."
"What kind of exhibition?" Tanis asked.
"Details remain unclear, hence why we sent an agent in to investigate," Will explained. "What we do know was that it was said to be a machine that's believed to overcome death."
Elsa's eyes widen in shock upon hearing that. Those words had been spoken by every person who bore the name Frankenstein. Even her parents, Adam and Eve, the very products of her grandfather's work, had also uttered those very words when they brought her into the world with a bolt of lightning. The power to control the forces of life and death were not to be taken lightly. It would spell doom and destruction for those foolish enough to wield the power of God like a toy. Even her grandfather was destroyed by the very powers he sought to control in the end.
"Approximately five hours ago, the captain of the Annabelle Lee sent out a distress call that caught our attention," Agent Du continued.
He then played the audio of captain's distress call to his team.
"Mayday! Mayday! This is the Annabelle Lee, we need immediate assistance! The guests are becoming infected by some sort of unknown contagion that's making them violent! We have multiple casualties! Please send help!
"We intercepted it and barred it off from reaching the mainland," Will said to the others. "Dr. Director wanted to contemplate what our next move should be until it was decided that we go in and investigate the situation for ourselves."
"What about this Agent Kovac person you mentioned earlier?" Sibella asked.
"HQ has tried to get reach him, but so far he hasn't responded," her leader answered. "We assume that he's dead, but if there's a chance that he's still alive then we are to bring him back with us."
"So, we go in, find out what's making these people nuts, destroy the machine and try to find a guy who might be dead," Winnie listed off. "Is that about right?"
"You'd be correct," Will said. "We have exactly four hours to figure out what happened on that ship, find Agent Kovac and leave before Dr. Director authorizes the ship's termination. The ship is still en-route to Spain, which means means it must be destroyed before this contagion has a chance to spread."
"Oh, goody, we get to add 'possibly blown up by our boss' as an extra health hazard today," the she-wolf grunted sarcastically. "I freaking hate this job."
"Well, at least I don't have to worry about being nuked," Phantasma mentioned. "I'm the most dead out of all of you."
"Gear up. I want wheels off the ground in twenty minutes," Will said to the team.
"Yes Sir!" the girls compiled in unison.
As the team of monsters departed from the briefing room, Elsa remained silent. Her mind ran wild with so many questions that she yet had the answers for. Could it really be the same type of machine that brought her to life? And if so, how could anyone replicate it? These questions and more troubled her thoughts, but what she did know was that, whatever the answers may be, it would only bring her pain.
After boarding their personally customized stealth jet, the Raven, Task Force M took off from their hidden base and flew toward the location of the cruise ship. The girls had no need for guns. For their claws, fangs and supernatural abilities were far more lethal than any firearm, making Will the only one who carried a sidearm among the team. As the team's leader flew the jet toward their destination, Elsa still remained silent, still contemplating as to what she would find aboard this apparently doomed ship. She had so many questions yet not a single answer for any of them. It was almost insulting to her. She had all this knowledge at her disposal now, and yet it all seemed useless to her.
"Are you okay, Elsa?" Tanis spoke up. "You seem like something's bothering you."
"What? Oh, it's nothing," the patch-work girl brushed off. "Merely lost my own thoughts, that's all."
"Would those thoughts happen to be about what we're flying into?" Winnie posed.
Elsa grimaced at the werewolf, who smirked back at her, knowing that she had hit the nail on the head with her assumption.
"As a matter of fact, it is," the Frankenstein confirmed with a sigh. "I have something of a hypothesis, well, more of a fear really, that the machine Du spoke of might be similar to the one that gave me and my parents life."
"But I thought that your parents destroyed any record of your grandfather's work after they gave you life," Sibella said.
"That is what troubles me," Elsa replied. "The Frankenstein family's greatest achievement is also the bane of our existence. We knew that should this power ever fall into the wrong hands, the world would be undone."
The true tale of Frankenstein had a far different ending than the one that was widely known from the novel chronicled by a woman who was once a friend to Victor, who wrote the book in an attempt to horrify her friends during one stormy night. According to the book, Victor's creation plagued him for abandoning him shortly after breathing life into him, killing his loved ones and leaving him to blame until Victor set out to kill the monster in a journey that ended his life in the arctic north. In reality however, the true tale of Victor and his creation was much different from the story.
While it was true that Elsa's father did in fact murder Victor's best friend and brother out of rage for being discarded by his creator, the undead creature felt only remorse for what he had done and went to his father, begging for his forgiveness, to which Victor gave him, knowing that the blame was truly upon him and not his monstrous child. The creature, whom Victor had named Adam, sought to cure his child's loneliness and created him a wife whom he loved dearly. Victor then married his beloved Elizabeth and lived a long and happy life until he died of old age. Sadly, the good doctor and his wife never had children of their own, save for the one the scientist had created himself.
Shortly after his father's passing, Adam and his wife, whom was named Eve, came to the home of the now widowed Elizabeth, giving their condolences while also asking for her aid in a certain matter. The two man-made creatures were truly a triumph of science over nature, but they could not create children in the same natural way as humans did. They wished to have a child of their own and asked their 'mother' if Victor kept any of his notes from when he first gave life to Adam. Fortunately, Elizabeth did in fact keep Victor's notebook and some of his old blue prints of how he created the machine and offered to give them to the undead couple so long as they swore to destroy everything after they had created their child, fearing that, if this power was ever discovered by the outside world, mankind would no doubt bring about only chaos and doom by wielding this power over life and death like a child's pop-gun. And so, shortly after successfully giving Elsa life, Adam and Eve destroyed every shred of the work of the late Victor Frankenstein, keeping it forever out of reach of those who would misuse its power for all time.
"We're approaching the target," Du said to his team. "Get ready."
The monstrous women collectively got up from their seats and stepped toward the bay door. Will lowered the Raven downward toward the ship before opening the door, revealing the cruise ship to the rest of Task Force M. Even though they were still some height away from the ship, the team could see a menagerie of blood and gore strewn about all across the decks. Bodies of men, women and children were all torn limb from limb and left to rot. Music still played over the intercoms and lights still shined down on the carnage that was there for the monsters to see. Even from where Winnie was, she could smell only death and decay on the cruise ship. They weren't shocked by this sight, for this was normal by their standards.
After putting the jet on auto-pilot and switching on its cloak, Will and his team of monsters leapt down from the aircraft and onto the ship.
"It smells like death," Winnie noted as she sniffed the air. "A lot of it."
"Sibella, take Winnie and Tanis and search the upper decks," Will instructed his teammates as he drew his sidearm. "Elsa, Phantasma, you two are with me. We're going to search the lower decks. Remember, we don't know what we're walking into and we're on the clock, so stay in constant radio contact."
"And let's not try to draw attention to ourselves this time, Winnie," Sibella remarked. "We don't want a repeat of that mishap in San Lorenzo."
"What? Those river pirates were asking for it," the werewolf defended. "I'm still picking them out of my teeth."
"Besides, it's gonna be kinda hard to keep a low profile in this mess," Phantasma mentioned.
"Phantasma's right," Will agreed "We don't have the time nor the luxury to be subtle. Radio in if you find the machine and/or Agent Kovac, dead or alive."
With that, Sibella took on her bat form and flew downward toward the decks lower levels with Winnie and Tannis following closely behind. Will then lead the ghost and the Frankenstein toward an entrance that lead into the lower decks of the cruise ship. Like before, these decks were filled with the mangled bodies of the crew and passengers alike, all torn to shreds by whatever now stalked this ship. Elsa approached one of the ripped up corpses and began to examine the remains. Will walked up to her, all the while keeping her covered as he scanned the room.
"What are we looking at here, Elsa?" he asked, keeping his eyes on his surroundings as he did.
"Judging by these bite marks and the scratches on this man's skin, I'd say that he was killed by another human being," Elsa concluded. "It would stand to reason that the others were killed this way as well."
"But why would people just start killing each other?" her leader questioned.
"The captain's distress call did mention something about some sort of plague that was driving the guests mad," Elsa noted. "Perhaps this is the aftermath of whatever tragedy befell these people."
"You think it might be airborne?" Will asked.
"It's hard to say at this point," the patch-work woman said. "Though the only one here that should be concerned about that is you, Agent Du. Phantasma and I are impervious to diseases since we are among the undead."
Will nodded at that before reaching into one of his pouches and pulling out a small face mask to cover his mouth and nose. Hopefully, this mask would filter out whatever sickness was onboard the ship, although that was going by the assumption that he wasn't already infected.
"Phantasma, scout ahead," he said to the ghost. "Report back to us if you find anything."
"Yes sir, mon capitaine!" Phantasma compiled with a mock salute before flying down into a nearby corridor.
While the phantom took point, Elsa and Will stayed behind to further examine the body.
"You think this is connected to the machine Kovac told us about?" the human agent posed.
"I think it's safe to say that it's a strong possibility," the Frankenstein confirmed. "But something troubles me about this corpse."
"What do you mean?' Will inquired.
"Look at the body," Elsa began as she gestured to the corpse. "This man probably died only a few hours ago, and yet the rate of decomposition would make it look as though it were several weeks old. And that's not the most perplexing part."
The patch-work woman then gestured over to another nearby body of a woman.
"That woman over there appears as though she died only a few hours ago, and yet her cadaver looks exactly like how one would look like after dying a few hours ago," she continued.
"So, why do we have bodies who look like they died recently and those who died weeks ago?" her leader mused.
"I fear that we will not like the answer," Elsa noted with trepidation in her voice.
Just then, Phantasma's voice was heard over the team's COMM-Link.
"Guys, I found someone!" she informed the others.
"Is it Agent Kovac?" Will questioned.
"No, its a kid, but she looks hurt," the ghost said. "You guys should get over here. I'm over by cabin corridor 7-G."
Will and Elsa left their spot and headed toward Phantasma's location. While Will would've preferred not to interact with civilians due to the fact that his team was primarily black-ops, he needed answers as to what occurred aboard this ship. It wasn't before long that the two agents reached the phantom, who was currently hovering over a young girl. The child appeared to be no more than six or seven with what looked like a deep bite wound on her leg. Her breathing was heavy and labored, a clear indication that she was in dire need of medical attention.
Elsa's heart grieved for the girl, knowing that she might not make it, but she was more than willing to do whatever she could to keep her alive. So, without waiting for Will's orders, she reached int to one of her belt's pouches and pulled out a small first-aid kit, something that was meant more for the only human on the team and not for her.
As she lowered herself to apply a bandage to the girl's wound, the child used what little strength she had to pull away and pull herself up against the wall she was leaning up against with fear in her eyes once she realized that two monsters were looking down at her. Elsa couldn't help but feel slightly hurt by that. It was a look that she and her teammates knew all too well. Even in their younger years as members of Grimwood's school, the girls had been faced with the same fear toward them for the sole reason of not being human. It was something even Elsa's father encountered after his birth that drove him to murder. But, regardless of the child's terror, the Frankenstein was determined to aid the girl however she could.
"It's okay," she assured the child in a gentle voice. "We're not going to hurt you."
She then held out her hand as a gesture of peace.
"Please, little one, let us help you," she asked softly.
The girl looked at the monster hesitantly for several moments before slowly holding out her leg for Elsa to apply some medicine and a bandage to. As she did, Will approached the girl.
"Can you tell us what happened here?" he began.
"The monsters came here and killed everybody," the girl replied in a weak voice. "The man in white switched on a machine in the main hall and made the monsters walk."
"What man in white?" Agent Du questioned.
"I-I don't know," the girl admitted. "My mommy said he could bring daddy back to life..."
The girl then began to weep.
"But when he did, daddy bit mommy's hand off!" she cried. "Then people started screaming and running when more monsters came, and I got away, but one monster bit me!"
The girl then began to cough again, only this time a mouthful of blood erupted from her mouth. Elsa attempted to aid the child, but the girl only continued to cough up more mouthfuls of blood onto the patch-work woman. Suddenly, the girl fell over on her side and would have fell onto the floor had it not been for Elsa catching her before she hit the ground. The girl wheezed and gagged for breath as if she was being strangled by an unseen force. Then, just as sudden as the child thrashed about in Elsa's arm, she stopped as she let out her last breath.
"She's...she's gone," the Frankenstein said in disbelief.
A great sadness overtook Elsa. True, she did not know the girl, but she felt great sympathy none the less. Just then, the trio's COMM's switched back on with the voice of Winnie on the other end.
"Guys! We need backup!" the werewolf shouted over the radio.
"What's the situation, Winnie?" Will questioned.
"The situation is that we've got a horde of fucking zombies up here and were overrun!" Winnie exclaimed. "Get your asses up here now!"
In that moment, it all made sense to the Frankenstein. The difference of the decaying bodies, the strange bite marks, why didn't she realize it earlier? The Grimwood girls had faced zombies in the past, but those were more of the traditional voodoo variety that their arch-enemy, Revolta, the Witch of the Web, had summoned to to do battle with the girls in the past. As Elsa had this revelation, the dead child in her arms suddenly sprang back to life with a wild look in her eyes as she leapt forward and bit into the monster's shoulder, startling Will and Phantasma in the process. Elsa hissed in pain and yanked the undead creature off of her person, taking a chuck of her flesh along with it, before tossing the zombie girl away from her and several feet down the hall. The girl instantly sprang back to her feet and began to shamble toward them once more, only to be stopped by a well-placed bullet from Will's gun to her head.
"How did you know that would work?" Phantasma asked.
"I've seen enough movies to figure it out," her leader replied.
He then aimed his gun at Elsa, who had since gotten back to her feet, clutching fresh her bite wound as she did.
"I also know that once you're bitten, you're infected," he continued.
"Really, William? I figured that you were smarter than that," Elsa said. "As I stated earlier, I am already undead, and you cannot infect that which is undead."
"Are you certain?" Will persisted, keeping his gun aimed at her head.
"Quite so," Elsa affirmed. "Now do please lower your sidearm. I imagine you'll need the bullets later."
Still feeling uncertain about Elsa's statement, Will lowered his gun, doing his best to trust his teammate. He then looked back at Phantasma.
"Phantasma, get to the upper levels and assist Sibella and the others," he ordered. "Elsa and I will find the machine."
Suddenly, the trio heard a low moan coming from down the hall. They looked at saw several more undead passengers and crew members slowly approaching them. No doubt they had been attracted by the commotion caused by the zombie girl's attack. Knowing her objective, Phantasma phased through the ceiling above her and headed toward the location of Sibella's team, leave Will and Elsa alone to face the horde of rotting flesh alone. However, rather than try to fight their way through them, the duo turned in the opposite direction and ran down the other way in their search for the main hall.
As they ran, another zombie suddenly sprang out of one of the cabins and tackled Will before pinning him against the wall as it went to try and bite into his neck. The GJN agent instantly kicked the cadaver off his person and fired two rounds into its head, killing it instantly. Another pair of zombies sprang out from the cabin ahead of them and went straight for Elsa. The Frankenstein raised an arm to protect herself, only to have one of the creatures to latch onto her arm and bite into it. As Elsa struggled to try and rip her assailant away from her, the second zombie sank its teeth into her side as it tried to pull her down to the ground. Using her free arm, Elsa swatted the walking corpse off of her person before punching her fist right through its face. With one zombie down, Elsa took her arm that was still being chewed on by her other attacker and smashed it into the wall, crushing the zombie's skull from the force of the blow in the process.
After dealing with the zombies that had attacked them, the two agents looked behind them to see that the horde that was chasing them was slowly getting closer. Hoping to even out the herd, Will fired several rounds into the horde, dropping at least three of them in doing so. Elsa was still focused on the hallway ahead of them, which was now having its fair share of zombies shambling toward them. It wasn't as many as the ones behind them, but they still blocked their path none the less. Without giving it another thought, Elsa tore a door off the hinges of one of the cabins and charged forward, using the door as a shield as she did. She crashed into the small pack of corpses and kept running forward until she collided with a wall, squishing the zombies like flies upon impact. Will was following close behind his hulking teammate, keeping his eyes on the horde behind them as he did. Elsa then grabbed another pair of doors and threw them down the hall behind them, knocking over several members of the horde in order to slow them down.
"Elsa, we only have an hour and a half at this point until Dr. Director destroys the ship," he said. "Agent Kovac can't be alive in all this, and there's no way we can reach the machine at this rate. I'm ordering a retreat."
"You cannot be serious, William!" Elsa replied in disbelief. "I have to know if this was truly my grandfather's work that did this!"
"There's no time!" her leader stated firmly. "We're leaving! That's an order, Elsa!"
"Not until I know for sure!" the patch work woman snapped back. "I cannot let this evil taint my family's name more than it already has!"
As Will looked into the giant's different colored eyes, he could see her pain and remorse. As a GJN agent, he never allowed personal feelings to hinder his mission in any sort of way, nor would he allow his teammates to falter in the same way. But this felt different to Will. He could almost feel Elsa's sadness about the thought that something her family used to bring life was used for so much death. It was in that moment that he made a choice.
"We'll go," he finally relented. "But if it gets to close to the deadline, we're pulling out. Understand?"
"Thank you, sir," the Frankenstein said.
"Don't make be regret this," her leader informed her before reloading his sidearm. "Let's go."
With that, the two of them took off down the hall, all the while they hoped that the others were fairing better than they were.
Winnie let out a mixture of a snarl and laugh as she jumped headfirst into a another group of zombies, slashing madly at the walking corpses in a wild frenzy as she did. When she, Sibella and Tanis entered one of the bars on the cruise ships, they at first found a massacre like the one on the top deck, but this time they discovered who they thought was a woman hunched over a dead body, which quickly turned out to be a zombie consuming the flesh of its victim. The zombie attempted to take a bite out of Winnie who instantly dispatched it, but the sound of combat had attracted several other zombies, leading to the trio of monsters to defend themselves, which only lead to more undead flesh eaters to join the attack.
In all honesty, the werewolf was happy for the zombie ambush. It gave her an excuse to kill something, even if said something was already dead. She never felt more alive than she did in the heat of combat. As she slashed apart the horde, she couldn't help but let out a laugh as she cut down the undead around her. Unlike the flesh of a living human, zombie flesh was much more loose and had a a tendency to splatter more due to the rot and decay the creatures had gone through. As the werewolf continued to cut the undead monsters down with her bloodstained claws, she failed to notice that one of the zombies had snuck up behind her and bit deep into her shoulder, making her cry out more in anger than pain. Acting on her anger, she twisted her head around and sank her fangs into the zombies face, tearing the head from both her person and from its shoulder with one swift motion. Even though she was the only monster who was among the living, her Lycantrophy kept her safe from any disease, including those of the zombie variety.
"Think you can bite me, huh?!" she shouted at the surrounding horde. "I'll bite you back, maggot brains!"
As Winnie leapt headfirst into the undead masses, Sibella was dealing with her fair share of zombies as well. Unlike her werewolf teammate who mindlessly tore her way through the horde, she used her superhuman speed to run through the zombies, cutting them down with her claws as she did. Sibella wanted to end this skirmish as quickly as possibly and leave before their deadline was up. She too had been bitten, several times in fact, but, thanks to her undead nature, she also remained unaffected. The vampire was thankful that she managed to have a quick drink of blood to keep her going, or else she would have exhausted herself by now. However, she knew that while she and her fellow monsters outmatched the undead horde, they were outnumbered, and with the amount of zombies that were pouring into the bar from being attracted to the sounds of battle, sooner or later they would be overrun.
Just then, Sibella noticed a green flash of light over her shoulder and saw that Phantasma had entered the fray.
"I thought you were with Du and Elsa," the vampire pointed out.
"Du sent me to back you up," the ghost said as she blasted another zombie with her ecto-blasts. "They're headed to destroy the zombie-bake oven that made these things."
"Well, they better hurry up!" Winnie called out as she continued her fight against the waves of walking dead. "This shit is getting ridiculous!"
It was then that Sibella turned her attention to Tanis, who was currently fending off her fair share of corpses with her whip-like bandages.
"Tanis!" she called out. "You know what to do!"
The mummy princess nodded in understanding. Within seconds, her bandage wrapped body began to come apart and reform as a massive sandstorm. Tanis's face, the face she once had when she was human, appeared in the cloud of sand. With an ungodly shriek, the cloud of sand spread like flood across the bar, shredding the undead horde into pieces. Within seconds, the zombie mob was reduced to a mass of gore. The sandstorm reformed back into Tanis, who collapsed to the ground, exhausted form using so much of her strength.
"You did good, Tanis," Sibella complemented.
"Uh, guys..." Phanty noted, pointing to the doorway. "Here comes round two!"
The monster girls looked toward the door and saw another mass of walking dead shambling toward them. Tanis was too weak to aid in this fight, so it would be up to the other three to hold these creatures off until Will and Elsa completed their mission.
"I'll take the one on the left," the ghost joked, making her friends groan in unison.
With that, the trio leapt into the fray once more.
Thanks to the commotion that the rest of their team was causing, Elsa and Will had managed to reach the main hall with minimal resistance along the way. Will and his monstrous teammate took down whatever zombie they came across quickly and quietly in order to remain unseen by the rest of the walking dead. As they approached the main hall, Elsa's fears reached fever pitch as she and her leader stood outside of the main hall's massive front doors. A part of her wanted to turn and run in order to save herself the pain of seeing her family's life work being used so shamefully, but she she steadied her heart and threw open the door and stepped inside with Will following closely behind her. The room was dark, but the duo could make out the shape of a large object sitting on the center stage of the room.
"I'm so glad you could make it," came a voice from the darkness. "I was hoping you could see this, Elsa Frankenstein."
Suddenly, the lights switched on, revealing the object that was sitting upon the stage. Just as the patch-work woman feared, it was, in fact, the machine that had been built in the image of the one that gave her family life. However, Elsa noticed that there were some major changes to it that had taken her aback. While the machine had all the proper parts to it, such as massive conducts, Tesla coils and other machines that harnessed electricity, it also had a strange chemical tank connected to it as well.
"Beautiful, isn't it?" the voice said. "Admittedly, it's not 100% accurate to the one your grandfather built, but, then again, who could ever compare to the great Victor Frankenstein?"
"Show yourself!" Will demanded.
As if on cue, a figure jumped down from the ceiling and onto the stage besides the machine. He was pale skinned and had a well-trimmed beard on his face. He was thin, yet Elsa and Will had a sense that he was stronger than he looked. The biggest shock to the two agents was the man's attire, which was one of a GJN Agent.
"Agent Kovac?" Will said, clearly taken aback. "What happened to you?"
"A change, Agent Du," Kovac answered with a smile. "One for the better."
Thanks to her enhanced vision, Elsa saw that the Agent's teeth now spotted a pair of vampire fangs. In that moment, it all clicked for the Frankenstein. The mindless dead, the machine and, above all else, the man in white. Kovac's vampirc change only further confirmed her suspicion. As Elsa put the pieces together in her head, Kovac's smile grew only wider.
"Ah, so you figured it out," he noted. "You really have become the smart one, haven't you?"
"Even in my previous mentally lesser state I could've figured it out!" Elsa proclaimed.
"What are you talking about, Elsa?" Will questioned. "What the hell is wrong with Kovac?"
"He's a traitor, Du," Elsa replied in a stern voice. "Not just to GJN, but to all of mankind!"
"What do you mean?!" Will asked.
"He has become a vampire," the patch-work woman stated. "Not like Sibella, mind you, but one made from the science of a madman!"
"Mad, my dear?" Kovac inquired mockingly. "No! This is brilliance at its best!"
"Where is he, Kovac?!" Elsa demanded. "Where is the Major?!"
Hearing that name took will aback. He had only read old World War II files from back when the Global Justice Network was still in its infancy, but from what he read about the madman known only as the Major, he dreaded him. From the information he had read about him within those files, the Major was the commanding officer of a special Nazi battalion that worked deeply in the occult known only as Millennium. While reports were neither confirmed nor denied, it was believed that the soldiers within the battalion were vampires that were bread for avenging the German army should it lose the war. After being defeated once by Sibella's father and the Hellsing Organization, they vanished into the shadows of the world, spoken in whispers like a nightmare. If Millennium was behind this carnage, then the world was truly at risk.
As for Elsa, she knew the Major and his army all too well. In her days at Miss Grimwood's Academy, she and her classmates have several clashes with the organization over the years. The main goal the Major had in mind for the girls was that he wanted to capture them so that he could harvest their cells to create a new breed of soldiers for his army. An obsession that he still had aspirations for.
"He left just as the festivities were just beginning, I'm afraid," Kovac answered. "He sends his regards."
"How did you build that machine?" Elsa questioned tensely. "My parents destroyed any record of it after I was born."
"I'm not quite sure about the details, I was kept in the dark about that part," Kovac admitted. "But, from what I understand, your grandfather wasn't quite as thorough with covering his tracks as he thought he was. Millennium built this machine from what little notes they could find of Victor's masterpiece. As you might guess, the results have been...less than satisfactory."
"We noticed," Will growled. "So, why this boat?"
"These people were financial backers for various Nazi-sympathizer groups from across the globe, including Millennium," the traitor answered. "When the Major told these people that their money was going toward a weapon that could not only genetically purify the world, but also give them eternal life, they took the bait like fish to a hook."
"But you wanted test subjects, not investors," Elsa gathered.
"Correct," Kovac mentioned. "The Major had enough money as it was from the funds he took with him when he escaped Germany, but he wanted to see if this machine was going to work. So, who better to test it out on then a bunch of idiots with deep pockets?"
"You're sick, Kovac!" Will shouted as he raised his sidearm up. "Why would you throw everything away and join these monsters?!"
"Well, immortality does have its benefits," the traitor replied. "Besides, I've always been a fan of German culture."
"Speaking of which," Elsa mentioned. "What is that vat of chemicals for? Those weren't apart of the machine's original designs"
"Ah, yes, I was hoping you'd notice that," the vampire answered. "Have you ever heard of Project: Overlord?"
The two GJN agents were confused by that statement.
"It was private operation that was being carried out during the final years of the war," the vampire continued. "It was meant to give the F hrer a thousand year soldiers for his thousand year Reich by harvesting a substance that the Germans' had discovered in a small village in France and injecting it into the strongest men in the Nazi army. However, on the eve of the Allies' invasion of Normandy, a small band of US Troops destroyed the lab and seemingly buried the substance deep within the earth from where it came from. Fortunately, the Major and his troops managed to dig up the site and take what they could before the Allied forces could fully gain a foothold in that area. It was the Major's hopes that crossing the liquid with your grandfather's work would produce the perfect warriors for his army. Sadly, that simply wasn't the case."
Kovac then leaned forward, bearing his fangs as he showed his claws to the duo.
"Now then, if we're finished with the exposition..." he said. "Let's have some real fun!"
In the blink of an eye, the vampire had lunged at the duo and raced toward them at break-neck speeds. With a swipe of his claws, he slashed off Elsa's left arm before kicking her across the room. With the patch-work girl down, Kovac turned his attention to Will, who had already pointed his gun at him and fired. His bullets only hit empty air where Kovac once stood. Suddenly, the traitor reappeared behind the agent and, before he could he could react, Kovack slash his claws across Will's chest, cutting deep into his flesh in the process. The GJN agent collapsed to the ground as blood gushed from his open wound. He tried to raise his gun in on last last of defiance, but Kovac slapped his firearm out of his hand.
"Sorry it had to end this way, Du," Kovac said in mock apology. "But, if I'm being honest, I always hated your guts."
However, before he could lay another claw on his victim, Elsa's fist from her remaining arm punched through the back of the vampire's head and came out through his forehead. The Frankenstein then grabbed the corpse's upper jaw and flung it aside, tearing its head off in the proccess, before quickly kneeling down to tend to her fallen leader.
"E-Elsa..." Will began weakly. "G-get back to the o-others, and get to the Raven."
"I'm not leaving you," the patch-work woman denied.
"T-there's no time!" Will breathed out. "You've only got about twenty minutes until we reach our deadline."
He then reached up and held onto Elsa's arm and pulled her close so he could face her.
"Go!" he ordered with what strength he had left in his voice. "Save yourselves!"
With that last order, he fell to the ground in a lifeless heap. Elsa was left stunned by her leader's actions. True, they didn't agree on much, but she held respect for Du, and she'd be damned to let him die here at the madness of the Major. It was then that she noticed a table on the stage. Upon the stage was a small syringe that held a strange black liquid, no doubt the substance that was a part of Project: Overlord. An idea sparked in the Frankenstein's mind, and admittedly, it wasn't her best one. She rushed over to the table and took the syringe from it, still unsure if what she was about to do would save or damn Will, but she wasn't a Frankenstein if she didn't take any risks. So, without giving it another thought, she took the needle and jabbed it into Will's chest before injecting the liquid into his body.
Will's eyes snapped open as he shot up, letting out a deep gasp of shock as he did. His line of vision darted around his surroundings in an erratic fashion as he tried to regain his barrings. He was laying on a stretcher within the confines of the Raven, which was in flight. As he struggled to comprehend how he had gotten here, his team, save Sibella, who was flying the Raven, gathered around him.
"How...what?" He said in disbelief. "I was-"
"Dead," Elsa confirmed. "Yes, yes you were. Quite dead, in fact."
"But how-" Will attempted to ask.
"I injected you with the serum that Kovac had mentioned," the patch-work woman answered. "I wasn't about to let you die, William."
"Yeah, you maybe an asshole, but you're our asshole," Winnie added.
Will then looked at his hands. He saw that his veins were now enlarged and black. He was horrified by the sight and by what Elsa had done to him. He then looked at his chest where Kovac had slashed him open, which had instantly healed, and instead of a deep gash, only scars had taken its place.
"What the hell did you to me?!" he shouted furiously.
"I saved your life," Elsa reminded him.
"But now I'm-" he attempted to say.
"Like us," the Frankenstein affirmed.
"Welcome to the cub, boss!" Phantasma cheered. "We'll get you t-shirt and throw you a bar mitzvah!"
Before Will could say anything else, a loud expolsion was heard from outside the craft. Will turned his head around and looked out the window to see the Annabelle Lee begin to sink into the sea in a mass of fire and twisted metal as a GJN jet flew away from the scene. Elsa also watched the cruise ship vanish into the depths below intently, watching the perversion of her family's work disappear into the seas below as she did.
"It's over then?" Winnie commented.
"The mission is over, yes," Will mentioned before turning to look at Elsa. "But we're far from over for what you did."
"I understand and take full responsibility for this, Will," Elsa said. "But perhaps we should wait to have this conversation when we return to base where Dr. Director can have some input on this matter as well?"
"I assure you, she will," Will stated. "In the meantime, I suggest you stay away from me."
Rather than argue with her commanding officer, Elsa turned and walked away to the other side of the Raven, watching from another window as the ship continued to sink into the sea. She knew she wouldn't be punished too greatly for her actions, for she knew that Dr. Director would be happy to have her top agent still alive and, more importantly, she could now see first-hand what the serum could do on the battlefield. Will would be angry with the Frankenstein for a time, but he would come around to being reborn eventually.
"Ain't that some shit?" Winnie commented as she walked over to Elsa's side. "You save his life and he hates you for it."
"I can understand where he's coming from," Elsa replied. "It's hard to accept being one of our kind so suddenly"
"There's just one thing I don't get though," the werewolf mentioned. "How did you know that stuff wouldn't make Will into a zombie?"
"The truth is I didn't, Winnifred," Elsa admitted. "It was a gamble, really."
"...You did it more to see what would happen, didn't you?" Winnie surmised.
"What can I say?" the patch-work woman said with a small smirk. "After all, I am a Frankenstein."
[1] - As seen in part 3 of The New Frontier
