DISCLAIMER: I own Derrick Bolris. The Misfitverse belongs to Red Witch, and so does Althea Delgado/Wavedancer. Everything else (minus Dracula) belongs to Marvel.
Chapter 10: A Round of Fighting
"So you're the vampire that's been attacking people," Rina said.
"How observant of you, little girl," said the vampire.
"Do little girls have these?" Rina snarled, showing the vampire her claws.
"X-Men do," the vampire said. "I have heard of you, X-23, as well as your mutant compatriots. Is he one of them?"
"Like hell," Derrick spat, charging his hands with electricity.
"No matter," said the vampire. "X-Men, unaffiliated, it makes no difference."
The vampire lunged, but Derrick shot it in the face with a bolt of electricity. The vampire tumbled back, rolling into a trash can, which promptly fell on top of it.
"Nice aim," Rina commented.
"Yeah, I've had years of practice," Derrick said nonchalantly.
The vampire rose quickly, managing to levitate into the air before charging once more at the two mutants. This time, Rina leapt off of a wall and kicked the vampire, slamming it into the opposite wall. She back-flipped off, landing next to Derrick.
"That came from your training?" Derrick asked, preparing one of his electrical orbs.
"I'm not proud of it," Rina retorted. "Here he comes again!"
The vampire rose, and before charging at the two mutants again, he released a mighty howl of rage into the sky.
****
"Holy crap," said Gert. "Our job sucks."
The Runaways, along with Count Dracula, were watching the scene unfold from across the street. Karolina's hand was on her bracelet, ready to tear it off at any moment. Strangely, Gert's dinosaur Old Lace was not present.
"That must be the creature who has been impersonating me!" Dracula cried. "He must be stopped!"
"Why?" Nico snapped. "Do you just want to fix your reputation, or do you want to actually do the right thing?"
"Either way, we end up doing his dirty work," Chase added bitterly.
"The second one, Nico," Dracula sighed. "I can't fight this vampire. He is clearly more powerful than I am, since he's taken more blood than I have over the years."
"Those mutants are doing awesome!" Molly cried as Derrick and Rina continued to battle the other vampire. "Eat it, you stupid fakey bat-guy!"
"I'm standing right here, Molly," Dracula said.
"I know I'm out of this fight," Gert sighed. "Nice mode of transport, Drac. Since Old Lace sneezed when you used the dust, we don't know where she is. Real nice."
"How many times do I have to apologize?" sighed Dracula. "Karolina, would you mind getting this over with?"
"Okay, sure," said the second-oldest Runaway, removing her bracelet.
In an instant, her body became alight with rainbow-like energy, an energy that made Dracula cringe. Karolina flew up into the air, and with a jab of her arm, fired a single bolt of solar energy at the vampire, hitting him hard enough to send him to the ground.
"Great, more people," Derrick groaned.
"Wait a minute," Rina paused. "You're those people from LA, right? The Runaways?"
"Yeah, how'd you know?" Chase asked.
"We were on the national news, Chase," Nico said. "Who doesn't know us?"
Derrick raised his hand.
"Besides you," Gert said.
"That seems to have taken care of my imposter," Dracula observed, noting the seemingly vacant trenchcoat on the ground.
"Wrong," said the familiar Greek-accented voice from within the cloak.
The trenchcoat rose, still concealing the vampire. The hood had fallen, revealing a gaunt face with red eyes and wild powder blue hair. The vampire smiled his yellow-fanged smile as his boiled and burned skin slowly healed itself.
"What?!" Dracula cried. "But how?! Any vampire would have been incinerated by sunlight! There…there must be some mistake! You…you're some sort of false vampire!"
"Not a false vampire, dear Dracula," smirked the man as he finished healing. "I am a living vampire."
"Wait, a living vampire?" Nico said with a raised eyebrow. "Isn't that an oxymoron? Vampires are undead, mostly live in Transylvania, and feed off the blood of the living. How exactly can you be a living vampire?"
"Well," began the vampire, but Chase cut him off.
"Yeah, Nico's right," Chase said. "I'm not the monster expert like she is, and even I know that."
"As I was saying," began the vampire again, but this time Derrick cut him off.
"Great," he said, "first this guy goes around giving mutants a bad name, and now he gets a stupid title."
"WILL YOU JUST LET ME FINISH?!" roared the vampire.
No words were spoken.
"Thank you!" the vampire sighed. "Allow me to introduce myself. I am Dr. Michael Morbius. Or, at least I was."
"What do you mean?" Molly asked. "Are you a mutant, too?"
"Why does everyone say that?" Morbius sighed. "No, little one, I am not a mutant. My vampiric abilities are the result of a blood transfusion experiment. How I came to the conclusion that the experiment would cure me of my blood disease, I will never know."
"So why'd you start biting people?" Gert asked.
"Because I am now a vampire," Morbius replied with a shrug. "It is my destiny to feast upon the living."
He rose into the air again.
"Your appearance here, Dracula, is quite a fortunate turn of events," Morbius said. "If I can defeat you, I can secure myself a place as the greatest vampire of all time. Morbius the living vampire! The greatest of all vampires!"
"Dude, shut up," Chase spat, launching a stream of flame at Morbius. The vampire, however, simply flew away, charging at Dracula with alarming speed.
"Oh, no, you don't!" Rina cried, leaping up and stabbing Morbius in the side with her hand claws.
Growling in pain and anger, both Morbius and Rina tumbled back down into the alley, landing on a rather conveniently large cardboard box. Morbius threw Rina off of him, sending the cloned mutant sailing out of the alley. In retaliation, Derrick threw an electrical orb at Morbius, but the vampire tossed the cardboard box in front of the orb, destroying both at once.
Karolina fired another blast of energy at Morbius, but this time the living vampire dodged it, rocketing towards her and knocking her to the ground. Molly ran at Morbius, eyes glowing pink and a fist drawn back. Morbius simply laughed.
"What can you possibly do?" chuckled the living vampire.
"This!" Molly cried, punching Morbius.
The result stunned nearly everyone present. With one punch, Molly launched Morbius down the street, the living vampire bursting through a lamppost and crashing into a car. Dracula, Derrick, and a recovered Rina's jaws all dropped in unison.
"That was entirely unexpected," Dracula commented.
"Yeah, Molly's a really strong mutant," Karolina commented.
"Aren't you a mutant, too?" Rina asked Karolina.
"Excuse me," Karolina said, crossing her arms, "I'm extraterrestrial…and proud of it, thank you very much."
"Whoa!" another voice cried. "Looks like I missed one heck of a party!"
A man in a red-and-blue costume with webbing patterns etched onto it swung down via webbing, landing in front of the group.
"Spider-Man?" Rina said. "What are you doing here?"
"So you're Spider-Man," Chase said. "Bro, red and blue looks lame on you."
"I wasn't aware you were my fashion consultant," Spider-Man said. "As for you question, X-23, I heard some crazy shenanigans were going on down here. I might have missed the party, but I'm glad I came in time to see a vampire get his butt kicked by an eight-year-old."
"I'm eleven, jerk!" Molly snapped. "And I'm a mutant with super-strength, which is like being twelve at least!"
"Uh…okay," Spider-Man blinked underneath his mask. Suddenly, he felt a tingling sensation in his head. "Oh, boy."
Spider-Man quickly turned to see a fully-recovered Morbius flying toward them, roaring at the top of his lungs. Spider-Man launched a string of webbing at Morbius, allowing the web to attach to the vampire. Spider-Man then swung around and catapulted Morbius into a building, using his foe's momentum against him and successfully humiliating the living vampire a second time. Morbius peeled off the wall and collapsed into the pavement, finally defeated.
"Well, that was quick," Spider-Man remarked.
"Morbius must have been weakened from a lack of ingested blood," Dracula suggested.
"Dracula!" a familiar voice roared.
"Uh-oh," the vampire paled.
"What's your problem?" Derrick asked.
Storm and Cyclops appeared on the scene with several other X-Men, Scott preparing to fire his optic blast. An X-Man with metallic skin was with him, as were Logan and a red-haired girl.
"I think it's time I tested how well a vampire's body holds electricity!" Ororo growled.
"Er, goodness, look at the time!" Dracula said quickly. "Must be off, good evening!"
Dracula once again turned into a bat, flying off into the night.
"YOU GUANO-BRAIN!" Chase roared. "YOU OWE US A RETURN TRIP, YOU JACK—"
"Quiet!" Rina snapped. She then looked to the X-Men. "Everyone, it's all right! Dracula wasn't responsible for the attacks!"
She pointed to the unconscious body of Morbius.
"He was," Rina finished.
"Who is he?" asked Peter Rasputin, codename Colossus.
"We can ask S.H.I.E.L.D when we turn him over to them," Scott said.
"I can do that," Spider-Man raised his hand. "Don't have much to do tonight, anyway."
"Okay, then, take that vampire to the Avengers headquarters," Scott said. "In the meantime…"
Scott turned to the Runaways and Derrick.
"I think we need to talk," he said.
****
Can anyone guess what's going to happen next?