Update delays? Shut up, that does not sound familiar! Here's the good news: the next chapter is up and running.

And something haaaaapeeeennnns in this chapter. Oooooh.

Dead On Arrival: Part Six

Sorel shook his head. "This is my lucky day. I think…" He stepped towards Pete, but then hesitated. "Hey short stuff, if you're knocked out, I'll just go sodomize your friends."

Pete's eyes remained closed.

"Oh!" Surprised it seemed legit, Sorel silently celebrated his luck again; he had no intention of carrying out that last threat.

He smirked. "Hey, Gerard, where the hell are you?! Look at this!" He looked around for Gerard and Mikey, but his smirk disappeared when he realized there was no one else in his vicinity standing. Wait. He repeated to himself that he was in control, Because I am, but he was fighting the gut feeling saying the opposite. He turned around to try and continue scoping the land, but Pete's fist connected hard with his face.

"Didn't know I was that good an actor!"

Sorel spat and ignored the throbbing on his cheek as he unsteadily lifted himself up. "Resorting to petty trickery? You must be getting desperate."

Pete shrugged. "I didn't think you would actually carry out the sodomizing threat. Or at least I really hoped."

"Although… I'm not surprised." He stood with his feet apart, weight balanced. "You all like to play the heroic part, but I know you're not totally innocent." Sorel crossed his arms and smirked, looking Pete up and down, surveying him for more to say. "Look at you, kid. That's all you are - a pathetic child who got caught up in the big bad world of vampirism a little too early on. And you think you're good enough to play with the big kids."

Pete cracked his knuckles, keeping his arms raised up towards his chest and face, feet placed closely together. "Feh. Make fun of me all you want. I've been a pretty good match for you lately, haven't I?"

"Up until now," Sorel disappeared.

Pete froze.

Sorel simply popped up in front of him, gave him a wide 'Ta-da!' grin, and backhanded him across the face. Pete landed in a crumpled pile off to the side, and quickly scrambled onto all fours. "You've forgotten all the little tricks I've had up my sleeve. I'm not exactly in perfect condition right now, that I'll admit, but I've still got enough to carry me through this…" He planted his foot on Pete's side and pushed him over.

Pete let out an animalistic growl and shot up, head butting Sorel in the chin. Sorel immediately recovered and grabbed Pete's wrist. "You're running on empty." He began twisting his wrist. "You've forgotten who I am. I'm better than you. I've been at this much longer. I have more stamina, more strength, and more smarts. I'm better prepared."

"Well… I'm not the only one who's forgotten! I'm prepared, too… we're vampire hunters… we're equipped to take down assholes like you." Pete reached around to the back pocket of his jeans, his detained wrist sending jolts of pain into his arm in protest. He grasped a thick, sharp wooden stake. One more left. Got enough strength to do this. Make it count. FOR THE FUCKING WIN, THE KILL.

Pete whipped out the stake.

Sorel was too shocked to react.

The stake connected-

Thunk.

-With the metal plate Sorel kept on his chest for protection.

Pete froze once again. His mind melted into a flurry of swear words, violently scolding himself, and mental pictures coming back to him of one of their earliest confrontations on this trip in which Sorel had shown him the plate and bragged about it.

Sorel let out a loud laugh. He cracked Pete's wrist with one hand, then dropped it just as his other hand yanked Pete's hair and forced him to his knees. Pete let out a noise of distress as Sorel picked up the abandoned stake. "This took way too long. Just way too long. But I think this moment reaaalllly made it all worth it."

"NO!" Patrick struggled to his feet, stumbling a bit as he lifted up the stake harpoon gun as far as it could go. He aimed it at Sorel's heart from his back. "You leave him alone!!" He shot the stake.

Sorel only had time to shout. The force of the gun allowed the stake to puncture his heart and keep shooting forward. By the time it jerked to a stop and clattered to the ground (the last of the chain it was connected to was spent), it had bored a huge hole into Sorel's chest. Pete watched, stunned, as the vampire grabbed the chain that went all the way through him with slowly disintegrating hands. "No… I can't die… I'm going to live forever… I was so close to eliminating the last threat… this must just be a bad dream from my beer, blood and Red Bull cocktail…"

Pete struggled to his feet, but Sorel suddenly let loose with a sound between a scream, a roar and a howl. Small stones, dead plant life, dirt clods and loose grains, even Patrick's hat all began to float into the air as Sorel's death rattle poured all of his telekinetic power out at once, with no real target. Huge, jagged gashes sliced their way through the ground, and a dead, twisted tree split down the middle. The gashes converged back on Sorel, and Pete gasped as he looked at his foe again. Sorel had been reduced to dust, but was still holding together in a human-shaped cloud, complete with clothing around him and the end of his arms at the chain going through him. There was another, hollow-sounding roar, and the dust cloud dispersed in a powerful shockwave that shredded the clothes it wore and threw Pete to the ground again.

Pete flopped back into a sitting position. "…Okay. I can live with that."

Joe, lying about twenty feet away with his chin resting on his hands, shouted, "HEY! That was cool!"

Pete stood up and shot Joe a dirty look. "Oh, sure. Patrick can help me, but you can't get off your ass?! I was gonna die there!"

Joe waved his hand. "Pfft. You were fine."

"…No, I totally wasn't!"

"Well, my legs are injured. Walking sucks right now."

"Where's Andy?"
"Unconscious somewhere else."

Pete disregarded this. "I should take that cure now."

"Heyyy," Andy whined, still floating four feet in the air, stomach-down. "Pete…" He waved his arm about. "Can you help me up… down… whatever?" Suddenly, everything Sorel had been levitating in his death throes crashed to the ground, including Andy. "Never mind," he mumbled through the sandy dirt on his face.

Shadows cleared his throat.

Joe groaned and covered his head with his arms. "Oh, crap. Come on."

"It would be so easy to kill you all and collect the bounties," He observed, shaking his head. "You're injured and tired… it would be just so simple. I could probably take all four of you at once."

Andy kept his face in the dirt. "I'm not watching this."

Shadows looked down, then turned around and began to walk away. "Call me when you can actually present a challenge. I have bigger fish to fry."

Patrick made his way over slowly and sat slowly next to Pete, groaning like an old man as he did. "That was both somewhat insulting and a real relief."

"WE LOVE YOU TOO!" Andy lifted his head to call out to Shadows.