Chapter Nine

30 July 99

Xander was out hunting and thinking about getting back to what he had planned to do this summer and that was his road trip to visit as many states as possible. He had been under Solomon Kane's wing for a month now and thanks to Soldier boy had picked up on all that Sol had taught him, which included how to control his new abilities.

He had been walking around a warehouse area, dressed like a homeless person or runaway, trying to look tasty, when he heard a scream from the nearest building and like an idiot, forgetting caution; he went rushing in to save the day.

"Aw crap!"

Xander turned right around and tried to race back out, only to be caught by the Lycan, who had set the trap, shifting into overdrive, (during his training with Solomon Xander found out that under stress his strength speed and reaction time increased by a factor of 3, he called it going into overdrive), Xander tried to fight back but the Lycan was to strong, when Xander kicked him the balls the Lycan backhanded him in to a wall. Dazed and in pain, Xander felt a fire racing thru his blood and as he looked at his hand he saw a black oil come out of his pores and start to cover his body.

Selene had been chasing this Lycan for weeks, it was a nutcase, even by Lycan standards, calling himself Caesar, he had been exiled by the other Lycans for being to vicious and a cannibal. She had followed him all over Europe and finally to this warehouse and if her suspicions were correct the other Lycan packs had been helping her from the shadows. She was standing over the sky light for the warehouse wondering how she could kill him before he killed her, or if she should just start to firing into warehouse, just as she was about to make up her mind, she saw a young man come racing in as if he was going to save who had screamed. She saw his surprise and heard his fear in his voice as he turned around and tried to run back out, that's when things got interesting.

When Selene had seen the guy come running into the building she had though there goes another mortal, but the speed and strength that he showed when he tried to fight Caesar was close to what a vampire would have and he showed that he had some sort of training during the painfully short fight, that's when things changed. She saw black oil like substance coming out of the kid's pores, Caesar was surprised as well for he was just watching the kid as well, the kid was looking confused at the oil.

Xander could feel something happening to his body, the fire was still burning in his blood but it didn't hurt and his pain from his beating as fading as well. His body was expanding and filling out. Selene and Caesar watched as Xander stood up and watched his own body changed. The oil had completely covered his body and he had gained six inches in height and his body started to bulk out with muscle, making him look like a body builder. By the time he had stopped growing and bulking out, his clothes and shoes had been absorbed by the oil, the oil had changed as well it had absorbed his hair and it looked like a form fitting one piece black leather body suit covering everything except his eyes, they were red and glowing. But the change didn't stop, what appeared to be glossy black iron plates, and bands, that expanded out of the leather covering his body. By the time the change was completed, Xander had metal plates on his upper chest, back and shoulders, a metal Speedo, plates wrapped around his fore arms, biceps, shins, and thighs, he had articulated metal bands around his neck, waist, and joints as well as black metal gloves and shoes and a black helmet that looked like Bobe Fett's helmet, without the sensor antenna and ear pieces, it was slimmer and had no "glass" in the face plate "T", but you couldn't see Xanders face, it was pitch black in the helmet and all you could see was his solid red glowing eyes and on his chest plate was an emblem of a dragon with its wings spread in flat black.

Xander was almost overpowered by the POWER flowing thru him but what was really freaking him out was the HUNGER, but not for blood but for the life he could feel around him, he knew that he had to "feed" soon or the hunger would over power him so he had to act fast.

Xander took a quick look around and found that his ability to "see" the life or aura of the people around him allowed him to see thru walls, it also gave him the ability to tell what a person was and whether they were good or bad or just in-between and their metal state at the moment. This sense told him that the Lycan in front of him was insane and about to attack him and the Corvenus vampire on the roof wanted to kill the Lycan but was held back by a promise and the four Vampyr Enforces that were keeping an eye on the Corvenus vampire were getting concerned, so he acted. A pulse of black fire erupted from Xander right hand and hit the Lycan in the chest blasting him thru the warehouse wall and out into the street were he lay broken and unconscious.

Selene watched in shock as the armored form looked around and then blasted Caesar thru the wall and then black fire came out of its back and solidified into huge black bat wings and jumped up thru the sky light, she was looking thru and flew off into the night. In a daze she went down to the street were Caesar had landed and waited for the enforcers to come and take Caesar into custody, all she could think about for the rest of the night was just how close she had come to dieing that night, some how she knew that the Black Knight had left before he had fed, she knew this because she had felt how the heat in her body and the night air was sucked out as the Knight had passed by her leaving an almost numbing cold.

Xander knew he had maybe an hour or more before the hunger took over. So he was looking for the zoo or a stables to get a snack, that's when he felt a pull to the north, it felt like a call for help, it only took him about 20 minutes to find the abandon building that was calling him in the woods north of New York City, he could feel the demons and humans in it. He landed quietly and snuck up behind a demon vamp of the Drac line, which was guarding the back of the building and grabbed him by the neck. Xander watched as the vamp froze when he grabbed it and allowed the power in him go out and consume the demon energies in the vamp, when that happened, the vamp started to shrivel up and mummify and when he was done and let go, the vamp crumbled into dust. Xander felt his Hunger lessen to a more manageable level but he was still hungry, the vamp had been only a month old, so he went after the Fyarl demon guarding the front and like the vamp when Xander grabbed him he froze and shrivel up and mummify as well and instead of turning into goo like all demons do at death it turned to dust as well, now he was full and he had a good idea what first hunger was like for vampire fledglings.

Now that the hunger was gone and he could focus on what was going on around him he turned his attention on the building. He also got rid of his wings in a burst of black fire.

Quietly slipping thru the front door and staying in the shadows and behind the crates in the building Xander was able to get to a cat walk were he could get a good look at what was going on here and wished he hadn't, it was an organ, body parts and blood farm