Mako's Message: Whew. Finally got this written. It's funny, I posted the last chapter because I didn't want to rush this, but despite how long it took I actually wrote about 90% of this in a four hour binge last night. If only I could write like that more often. I'd accept once or twice a week even.
Anyway, this is the climax to a story arc I started over a year ago and have been planning since 2010. So hopefully it's a hit -crosses fingers-.
It also happens to be the longest chapter I've written a long awhile, so there's that.
It's also full of snark and gore and violence, so honestly if you guys don't like it don't know what to do.
And finally I need to dedicate this story to a dear friend of mine. I haven't spoken to her regularly in a long time, but without her a lot of what Precocious Crush is wouldn't be, and this story arc wouldn't exist at all. So, thank you Jade, this chapter is for you.
Despite the fact that I put on a cape and mask and go out at night, patrolling the city and fighting crime, sometimes my life is way too much like a comic book.
I live in the real world. Stuff like this isn't supposed to happen. First Nathan Bush, then that grinning fucker, now this.
People say truth is stranger than fiction but... I think that's only because stuff like this isn't supposed to happen in real life.
We skipped our workout this morning because we wanted to be rested for this. I mean, we stretched, but we didn't jog or anything. Which maybe wasn't that great an idea because I couldn't stop fidgeting the entire time we were waiting. We weren't able to have the whole team since Dr. G and Sting have day jobs, and Col. Stars retired from combat, but were able to have White Mage and The Gentleman. I wouldn't have minded having Katie, just for the extra manpower, but I didn't think we'd need the help enough to ask anyone to bail on their jobs.
Besides, it was just supposed to be a bunch of nut jobs. I honestly felt like they were less of a threat than the Cunts.
So we took the van to their little...I don't know. What the fuck do you call a place where a cult meets? A compound? A church? Whatever.
I picked the lock on the back door and we went in. I didn't see any cameras or alarms, surprisingly, the two times I was in the building, and I didn't find anything then either so I figured we still had the element of surprise on our side. Everything was quite too, so it looked like we were right about everybody who stayed in the building sleeping through the day. Cause vampires.
White Mage and The Gentleman stayed in the kitchen to watch our backs while we went down the elevator shaft.
We didn't want to risk letting anyone know we were coming, just in case, so we forced the doors open and went down the cables.
It was surprisingly far down. At least three stories. Possibly four. Dave was nervous climbing down that far, and I asked why, since we've gone up and down buildings taller than that, and he said, "Because if we need to run this our only way out."
I didn't think we'd have to run from whatever was down there, but the idea that, if we did have to escape, we'd have to escape up this shaft did make me shudder a little.
Honestly, I was expecting a basement. Maybe something like a butcher shop, or a meat cooler, or whatever those things are where the have dead cows and shit hanging from hooks... or even just some sort of...meeting hall or something. I dunno. But when we dropped down into the elevator and forced the doors open... it was a fucking library.
The room was almost as tall as the elevator shaft and most of the walls were bookshelves, and all the shelves were completely full of books. Okay, there were a couple things that weren't books on the shelves here and there but there had to be literally tons of books. And there were cushioned benches near the walls, and ladders leaning up against them, and these old looking high back leather chairs in the corners, but the center of the room was empty except for this ridiculously ornate carpet. And there were three huge wooden doors in each wall, and there was another level up above with more ladders and another set of doors.
And as impressive and surprisingly creepy as all that was, the thing that made it even worse was the little girl sitting in one of those big chairs across the room from us.
Okay, so I know I'm 13, so saying "little girl" might sound like I mean a five-year-old or something, but she looked more like 9. Or eight? Ten maybe? Her feet didn't touch the floor and the book she was reading was almost as big as her torso. Now, this was a huge fucking book, but still.
When we stepped into the room she was just looking at us with this completely blank expression on her face, and then she lifted the book off her lap and balanced it on her thighs so she could rest her arms on top of it so they were just about shoulder height and she said, "You know, if you're not going to wait to be announced, then you could at least knock."
Her voiced echoed around the room, and we stepped in cautiously, looking all around and ready for people to jump out of nowhere. Cause the girl had to be a distraction, or there to make us let our guard down, right?
Well, nothing happened. We just moved slowly into the room, making sure the only thing we kept our backs to was each other.
As we got closer I realized her hair was this... red-brown sort of color that almost perfectly the stain of the room around her. Though, now that I think about it, I think the wood was supposed to be matching her hair. It was cut in this weird style where it framed her face in almost a heart shape. She was also really pale, except for her lips, and her skin was perfect.
She looked like a fucking doll.
Then she closed the book and put it down on her lap and said, "So, Kick-Ass and Hit Girl I presume? I've been wondering if I'd ever meet you. I never imagined you'd come to me on your own though. What made you decide to serve me?"
I said, "Serve you?"
And Dave said, "You're the queen?"
She sat up straighter and said, "Indeed. You may bow now."
Of course we didn't so she said, "How rude." and hopped off the chair. She was wearing this dark frilly dress, that was...elegant. Ridiculously elegant. I don't mean it looked stupid, I mean it looked like nothing anyone would wear just because. It was like something you'd wear to the Oscars in the 19th century.
She set the book down on a table next to the chair and walked to the door in the wall behind her and pushed the doors open. The other side was a kitchen that was all stainless steel. It looked like it belonged in a restaurant.
The door closed behind her and it was only THEN that we realized that we should have stopped her from just getting up and walking away.
Before we took more than two steps though, she slid a panel of the wall over while she stood at a counter. It was almost funny, because here's this kid saying she's the Queen of this cult and expecting us to serve her, but she has to lay across the counter to reach the sliding panel.
So then she drops down from the counter and says, "You'd be my right hands you know, if it changes anything," before opening the door to a freezer and pulling out cup of ice and this red lump that was just bigger than her hand.
We said, "No."
So then she starts cutting this thing up and dropping it and the ice into a blender, and her hands are covered in red and she starts licking it off her fingers and said, "That's a shame. With you in my service I could actually eat three meals a day."
And that's when I had the horrible realization that we'd just watched her cut up a human heart.
For some reason we still just kind of stood there. We probably could have saved ourselves a shitload of trouble if we'd just gone over and grabbed her, but for some reason it just didn't seem important.
She dumped some sort of powder into the blender that she put the heart pieces in, then got a pitcher of something out of a refrigerator and poured it in. I think it might have been blood. I'm not sure though. I've seen a lot of blood and this didn't look right. But then, I've never seen blood kept in a refrigerator so maybe that is what it looks like.
Dave must not have been as willing as I was to jump to the conclusion I did, because he asked, "What does us working for you have to do with you eating?"
She stopped what she was doing and looked at us for the first time since she got out of the chair and said, "Well, my servants are spread out pretty wide, and we've made progress, but I'm still only eating once a day. Twice if I'm lucky. And no Queen should have a diet like that. If you two joined me though? I don't doubt you'd be able to bring me a heart every day."
And that, of course, clinched it. Kinda wished I'd thought to wear a wire or something now.
So I said, "Well, we're here to put a stop to all that, not to join you. Sorry, not sorry."
"Don't worry though," Dave added, "I'm sure they'll find something to feed you three times a day in prison."
She stopped in the middle of getting a big glass out and said, "Are you sure? You really wouldn't have to make any big changes to what you already do, just bring me the hearts of the people you kill. And if you serve me well enough I might decide to make you a vampire as well."
Dave started to say something, but she held up a finger and Dave, for some reason, stopped talking, then she hit the button on the blender.
I can't really give him a hard time for it though. It's not like I did anything different. I don't know why. I should have just walked over, smashed her head into the counter, and dragged the little bitch into the elevator.
After I don't know how long, she finally stopped the blender and started pouring her...whatever into the glass. Since the motor wasn't running anymore Dave said, "The only thing we're bringing anywhere is you to jail."
She started to put a straw into the...blood smoothie and then said "Oh, you won't be taking me anywhere. Sorry, not sorry." and gave us a quick smile before taking the glass and walking back into the library with us.
So I smirked and said, "What? You think you have a chance against us?"
And she laughed and said, "I'm not going to fight you. I have minions for that," and took a sip of her gore.
And suddenly all the hair on my body started to stand up as I looked up and saw there had to be at least two dozen cultists standing around on the upper level.
Most of them took the stairs down, but enough jumped the railing that we were surrounded almost immediately.
I unsheathed the blades on my staff and Dave said, "Put those away,"
I said, "Why should I?"
He said, "You really want to let people think a dozen wackadoos are a threat to Hit Girl?"
I could hear him smirking at me, but I flicked the switch to put the blades away. Most of these people didn't look like they had any real training let alone been in a fight after all.
Of course, I should have gone with my instincts because these fuckers were crazy. They didn't seem to give a damn about themselves or each other. They just charged in and even as fast as we are it didn't take long for us to be swarmed over. Not that we were beaten or anything, just that the fight got very, very nasty at that point.
Now that I'm thinking about it, I should probably go to the hospital and get this bite checked out...
Anyway, we each only had one free limb most of the time. Fortunately we were able to over power pretty much all of them. I was lucky that the bigger guys went after Dave, because I saw Dave struggling with a couple that I knew I'd never have been able to shake off.
The worst part though was that they managed to get our weapons off us.
This one woman had one of my knives and pulled her arm back to stab me, but I managed to wrench an arm free and punch her in the face. The knife went flying into the air and hit the ground outside of the clusterfuck and I heard the little monster says, "Be careful! I want them alive when I cut their hearts out! It's been too long since I've had fresh food."
Dave kicked one guy in the head and headbutted the guy holding him at the same time and yelled, "Changed my mind! They're totally a threat!"
Which was a relief to hear, because I know how much Dave hates it when I kill people when he doesn't think we need to, and since these people were all unarmed, at first, I was sure he'd be pissed if I started killing them.
But now that the gloves where off, I was able to grab one guy's hand, hit a pressure point in his wrist that made his arm go limp, and then jammed his fingers into his eye. That shocked the bitch holding my legs and I was able to lift them up, grab the head of the guy who was holding me from behind with my feet and snap his neck.
I love being so flexible.
Of course, doing that also involved flipping him over me and he was a big guy so his corpse almost landed on me.
I didn't have anything on me except a couple smoke(and my one, just-in-case, frag) grenades, but it seemed to risky to use them. With all the chaos I couldn't really trust my other senses without my eyes.
The nearest weapon was one of Dave's batons, so I grabbed it, hit the switch, and flicked the sheath at the head of one of the guy's holding him and cracking his skull open. Dave fell backwards since there were to other guys holding his legs. He hit the floor and the guys stumbled but didn't let go, so he heaved himself up and socked one of the guys in the face, and used his newly freed leg to kick the other guy in the head as he fell back down.
I slashed my way through a couple cultists while trying to find my guns. Whoever took them either dropped them or couldn't get the safety off, but even though I knew my armor would protect me I still didn't want to get shot so I was worried.
It actually looked like nobody had been able to hold on to any of our weapons after they took them from us(which wasn't all that surprising because they would have been our main priority) since the floor was littered with my knives. Still no guns though.
Dave found my staff before I did, and was doing the best he could with it, but couldn't seem to find the switch for the blades and he hadn't trained with a staff anywhere NEAR as much as I had. Should probably fix that.
The fight didn't last much longer after that though. Once we started putting people down for good life got a LOT fucking easier and it was maybe another minute before the last one hit the floor.
I spun around looking for someone else to hit, and I spotted the little freakshow standing there, staring back us wide eyed and still holding that smoothie from hell but it looked like she'd stopped drinking it awhile ago. Our eyes met and it fell and shattered as she bolted for the third door.
We chased her into what I guess was her bedroom. It was large and there was a huge canopy bed on the opposite wall. She ran straight for the bed and grabbed one of the dolls. She spun around as she pulled a gun from it, but I was right behind her and slapped that shit right out of her hands and across the room.
I put Dave's blade to her throat and she said, trying to sound all calm and aloof like before but failing miserably, "Yo-you think I'm scared? I'm a vam-vampire. You can't k-kill me. And you WILL pay for" and that's when I slapped the fuck out of her.
She screamed, "I'M IMMORTAL! I AM THE QUEEN! I AM VAMPIRE!"
Despite her hysterical screaming, I was actually starting to think things through again, so I said, "You're right, I can't kill you with a knife." So I kicked out one of the supports for the canopy and grabbed piece of it and said, "But I bet a stake through the heart will do it."
I pulled my hand back to really ram it right through her chest, but Dave grabbed my arm and he yelled, "No!"
And I turned to look at him and said, "Why the fuck not?!"
He said, "Hit Girl, LOOK AT HER."
And I looked at her, and Dave said, "She's a child. Or at least looks like one. We can't just kill her. Do you realize how bad that would be for us if the police came down here and found her body?"
And I was really pissed because I really wanted to beat this bitch to death but I knew Dave was right, so I twisted her around so I had her arms behind her back hard enough to really hurt but not break anything, and started marching her out.
When we were back in the library I shoved her at Dave, said, "Hold this for a minute," and started collecting all our weapons.
I tossed Dave his batons after putting the sheathes back on them. The fact that he was able to hold both her wrists in one hand kinda made me wonder if he could do that to me. I mean, he has big hands but she was teeny and I'm small but not as small as she was. I don't think Dave ever knew me when I was that small... Maybe he did. I don't know how tall she actually was.
Anyway, so I was picking through the wounded, dead, and dieing when suddenly I hear a girl scream, "Let her go!"
I whip around with plenty of time see her charging at me, enough even to recognize her. So instead of stabbing her through the heart, I put my knife through her shoulder.
She screamed, and as I'd effectively clotheslined her, she her feet flew out from under her and she hit the ground. She had the wind knocked completely out of her since I was shoving her down at the same time. I don't think she could even see me her eyes were practically rolling back in her head from the pain.
She kept her eyes closed and whimpered, "I'm sorry" over and over. I had a feeling she wasn't talking to me though.
I stepped on her chest and that got her attention. Her eyes practically popped out of their sockets and she gasped for air but couldn't because of how hard I was pressing down.
I leaned down and grabbed the knife and gave it a slight twist and her eyes locked on to mine, completely wide and terror filled. Just the way I like them.
I said, "There are better ways to find meaning in your life," and pulled the knife cleanly out of her shoulder and left her there.
Dave and the queen were watching me, but with completely different expressions.
The girl obviously knew she couldn't beat us, so she didn't struggle as we marched her into the elevator and headed back up.
We got back up and White Mage and The Gentleman looked like they were ready for a fight when the doors opened, but they relaxed when they saw it was us. Then looked confused when they saw who we had.
"She says she's the leader. Basically confessed to everything. I need to remember to carry a tape recorder for these sorts of things," Dave said to them.
White Mage came over and gave her a quick look over before checking us for injuries. We're fine by the way. Scratches and bruises are the worst of it. And one of those fuckers bit my ankle. I hope I knocked all their teeth out if I didn't snap their neck when I kicked them off.
Our suits are pretty much fucked though. I don't think they'll be seeing another patrol. It's another one of those things that make me glad we found such a good armorer.
Anyway, The Gentleman said, "I'll go get the van," and ran out the door.
THAT was when the girl started freaking. She started screaming, "What time is it?!" as we forced her to the door and "I CAN'T GO OUTSIDE!"
She must have have been scared to death of going out into the sunlight, and, honestly, she kinda had reason to, because she started fighting really fucking hard. The kind of hard were they might break their own arm from struggling. She got her foot on the door frame while we tried to force her outside as the van pulled up. She started yelling, "OKAY! I'M NOT A VAMPIRE! BUT I CAN'T GO OUTSIDE! I SWEAR I CAN'T!"
But we forced her out anyway.
And once that late august sun hit her she started screaming. Like, seriously, slowly-pushing-a-knife-into-you-and-slicing-you-open-an-inch-at-a-time, screaming.
We threw her into the van and White Mage and I got into the back with her. She rolled across the floor and pulled her skirt up over her head, and the screaming started to turn into sobbing and moaning.
Alice kept trying to pull the dress down so she could get a look at her, but every time we turned and the sun came through one of the windows she'd start flailing around until she worked herself into some shade.
I don't know when we decided to not take her to the police and started heading for an ER, but we did.
She couldn't even stand by the time we got there so we had to literally carry her in. Alice went in ahead and got a nurse and some orderlies to come help, and they pulled her dress down, and the nurse freaked out on us. She pushed me back and yelled, "What the hell did you do to her!?"
I got a look at her and her skin was red, and covered in welts or blisters and starting to peel in places.
I didn't know what to say and before I could figure it out the girl started sobbing, "They didn't- have .. allergy, I need" and she said something that I don't remember. She attracted a whole crowd of people as they wheeled her off.
We decided we should leave quickly.
Dave called the police and told them about the injured and where to find them
I had The Gentleman drop us off near Dave and I's private safehouse. Dave flopped down onto the couch and he hasn't moved since.
I took a shower since I really wanted to get all the blood off me.
I'm still trying to process all this, really. I mean, I obviously know what happened but I don't know what happened.
I mean, this girl was seriously drinking blood smoothies and the sun burned her like we stuck her in fire.
It's like, she SAID she wasn't a vampire but still. What the fuck.
I just want to go to sleep. Maybe this will all make sense tomorrow.
