Blade rounded the corner of the alleyway with lightning speed, running with all the grace of a track star. He clasped the backpack tight to his back as it swayed forcefully up and down with the gravity of each step and took the chainlink fence in one jump landing hard on his feet on the other side. It was then he heard the growl. It was loud and close. Too close.
Jack Russel the werewolf hurled himself into the fence eliciting a loud rattle as Blade drew out his sword.
"Come and get me werewolf, I got a silver coated blade with your name on it!"
A voice boomed out from down the alley speaking in a very slight accent. "That would be highly unnecessary really."
Jack growled and stood back while Morbius and Manphibian walked forward from the shadows to stand beside him.
"Been looking for you vampire, ever since you gave me that nibble." He held fast to his sword with no sign of lowering it and smiled.
"Blade.. you come into our city and steal what's ours. To make it even worse you killed two men."
"Two dogs."
Morbius cleared his throat. "Two men!"
"They were werewolves like your friend here. As I said, dogs."
Jack growled and raised his chin but Morbius held his hand up in response signalling Jack to back down. Blade was obviously trying to goad him into an attack and no good would come of it. "Blade, what do you think you are doing?"
"Taking a relic you monsters don't need."
"It's cursed Blade. It will control you, that's why Frank Castle gave it up, it's why I gave it up. It turns you." Morbius sneered through his words.
A female voice rang out over the men echoing down the alley. "It doesn't matter leech, he doesn't have it. I do." Elsa Bloodstone stepped forward holding a backpack by the straps identical to the one Blade was carrying. He looked at it in confusion.
"Oh, you goddamn monsters! I'll kill you all!" Blade threw the pack to the ground in frustration.
Elsa spat out of the side of her mouth. "Hey, I resent that remark. Besides the stone is mine by blood. The monsters are just watching it for me." She moved forward and jumped the fence giving Blade a snide look. He stood still holding his sword as she swooped low and grabbed the pack retreating with both in hand.
"You LIED! I had the stone!"
"No honor among thieves babe." She smirked at him mockingly. He lurched forward in the alleyway and sliced down towards her with the sword but Jack lurched forward and intercepted it with his left arm. The blade sank into his flesh getting lodged firmly in the bone. Jack pulled the sword out of Blade's hands in his newfound pain and confusion while flailing his limb everywhere he could reach.
"Shit!" Morbius yelled and glided forward to check on Jack's arm. "It's in his radial artery. I have to pull it out or the silver will poison him!"
"And thissss isss why I normally sstay back at headquartersss." Manphibian crossed his arms and stared at them all in impatience.
"Shut up you fishass! I'm the one with a sword in my arm!"
"I could pull it out if you just stay still!" Morbius yanked on the sword but it was stuck stubbornly in the bone.
"Morbius you dolt that freaking hurts!"
"Next time don't leap in front of it!"
"He was trying to slice my girlfriend!"
Blade looked confusedly over at Elsa who had her hand pressed against her forehead rubbing the bridge of her nose. He moved slightly and she pulled her gun out to point it towards his head. "Nope. Don't even think about it. You're coming with us."
Elsa sat comfortably in the decrepit office chair while Morbius drilled the bone around the sword's edge with a tiny whirring tool. Jack was out cold on the hospital bed thanks to a heavy-handed amount of sedatives. The sword finally came loose and the whirring stopped while Morbius put away the tools for later sterilization. "There, he's good. I'll loose-stitch the skin together in a flash and he'll be healed in a few hours."
"Great, when does he wake up?"
"Probably while I'm stitching him if I'm unlucky." Morbius grabbed some surgical thread and a needle from his tray. "You two getting serious?"
"None of your business."
"I'm a friend." Morbius threaded the needle and bent over Jack's arm darting it in and out of his skin as fast as he could work.
"You're a shitty friend." She folded her arms and raised her eyebrows at him.
"What?!" Morbius lost his concentration and snipped the thread to start over. "I've known Jack for decades before he met you!"
"Yeah I know, experimented on him, attacked him when you don't feed, dragged him out to fight zombies.."
"That.. wasn't my fault."
"My ass, you got him infected with your stupid inoculation!"
Morbius put down the needle and glared at her. "I was trying to save lives! I cured the virus!"
"You're too damn inept to save anyone! Maybe in the seventies you had expertise but you've been out of the medical field for forty year Morbius! FORTY YEARS! Do you have any idea what's changed over the last forty years?!"
Morbius' voice turned from calm to a heavy growl. "Of course I do! I study, I keep up with the times!"
"You're a fucking fossil! A relic from the age of disco and bell-bottomed pants!"
"Will you both stop screaming at each other, Jesus you're giving me a headache.." Jack sat up and rubbed his head. He'd reverted to human form upon waking and needed clothes.
"Here." Morbius went to the corner and tossed him a pair of torn jean shorts which he caught in a midair clump.
"Much obliged. I'm sure you don't wanna see little Jack any more than necessary."
Morbius just nodded while Elsa went over to Jack and checked his arm over. He wiggled on the shorts and zipped them. She turned to Morbius angrily "Look! See his arm isn't even done!"
"It'll heal babe, I've had worse." Jack laughed.
Morbius leaned on a console on the side of the room. "I could have done better if someone wasn't disturbing my thought process."
"Oh, what is it vampire? Can't work under pressure? You need a blood martini and a backrub from your dead wife?"
"FUCK OFF!" Morbius snarled and bared his teeth at her. A creeping red glow came over his eyes.
Jack rushed him and held him back. "Whoa there! No no no! Elsa you go check on the prisoner. If you stay here he's gonna frenzy, he obviously hasn't fed enough!"
She tipped her head and heaved an overly dramatic sigh. "Fine. Come get me when you're done wrestling with Dr. Martyr Complex." She took her time strolling out, strutting and letting Jack have quite the view.
"Goddammit Mike, are you in there?!"
"Yes, sorry. I don't know what came over me. It's just.. Martine." Jack gave him a very angry look and let go of him. "Fuck Jack, what do you want me to say?"
"Say you'll make a damn effort to get along with her! Say you'll feed on actual human blood because this substitute isn't working for you."
"It'll work! It just need some changes.."
"Fucking idiot!"
"There are no humans in Monster Metropolis besides Elsa! I'm just trying to do the best I can Jack."
"Yeah bud, I know you are. We all are."
Blade sat examining the bars on the cell. They were solid steel probably twice as thick as the one's he'd seen in jail. God know what they held prisoner down here. Some sections of the wall appeared to have graffiti etched into them in.. Japanese? "What the hell?"
"Oh, are you thinking of escaping? I need the exercise." Elsa walked in her heels clicking on the cement floor.
"Bitch. I'd heard talk of you, the great Elsa Bloodstone: monster hunter, and yet here you are sitting around having tea with a load of the freaks."
"They aren't all bad, and I owe the werewolf. He saved me from hell. Literal hell."
"I've got a bone to pick with the vampire. Blood for blood."
"Not my concern." She leaned against the bars on the opposite side of the room and slid down to sit on the floor.
"I'm curious, just what is your concern here?"
"My concern, was that a bloke like you with the bloodstone could do a heap of damage to innocent people."
"So it's so much safer with the monster squad?" He made it sound like an accusation.
Yeah actually. They're pretty chill down here. Even the vampire barely holds a grudge."
"You haven't seen him hold a grudge don't mean he doesn't. You ask him about Dr. Paine and see how chill he gets." blade smirked. "He likes to play it cool that one but he's the one to watch. That ego will doom them all."
Jack came into the detention area padding softly on wolf's feet, he'd changed back. "Red, you having fun talking to the loser?"
"You can suck my dick wolf-boy!"
"Wouldn't be but half a bite Blade!"
Elsa stood back up dusting the dirt off of her from the ground. "Bloody hell, does anyone in this place not turn into a screaming kindergartener every thirty seconds?"
Jack turned to her. "Yeah, my friend that you insulted in there. He's normally the calm logical one." He crossed his arms and shot her a look of annoyance.
"I was just holding a conversation with him."
"You were flinging insults at him.. and you brought up Martine. Never EVER bring up Martine! The man's a lot happier when he forgets."
She spat out of the side of her mouth onto the cement floor. "Not my job to keep him happy." Jack crossed his arms and cocked his head to the side. No way he was gonna let this one go. "Fine, I suppose you want me to apologize?"
"Would be nice of ya'."
She crossed the room while giving Jack an annoyed glance. "Let's go do this before I come to my senses."
The two crossed the city to Michael's lab door. The heavy steel door was closed and locked, Jack shrugged off any suspicions and knocked on it to no answer.
"Maybe he went somewhere else?"
"Nah, he fucking sleeps in there for chrissakes." He knocked again harder this time. "Hey Mike, open up!"
"You look nervous is everything okay?"
Jack motioned for Elsa to stand back while he wrenched the handle down, bending it and sending the screws shooting into the air. The handle lifted out of the door frame with little effort and Jack pushed it open to gaze inside. They were alone.
"Oh shit. This is bad." He let the handle drop out of his hands and kicked it into the empty room with a clang.
"What's so bad. Disco vampire went for a stroll?"
"Nah, nope he's not fed enough lately and he's dangerous. Been working on a stupid ass blood substitute! He'd never leave! We gotta find him!"
"I'm not a detective. Finding monsters and not killing them isn't in my job description."
"First off Mike ain't a monster, he's still human. He's about the most non-monster thing down here sides' you." Elsa rolled her eyes at him. "Second, we need him here."
"Pffff, what do you need him for."
"Well, he has the bloodstone. You left it in his lab and your backpack is gone."
"That sonofabitch! I will make him choke on a stake!"
"No you won't because I won't let you." Jack gave her a skeptical glance. "Oh hold on a minute!" Jack caught sight of K'antu rounding the corner. "Hey, mummy. You see Mike come through here?"
"YEs.. He saID thaT He had BuSInesS in New YORk. SomeOne to Go sEE. LefT aBOut FifteEN MINutes Ago." K'antu the Living Mummy enjoyed roaming the halls and playing patrol. He was always alert to situations just never quite bright enough to know when shit had met the fan.
"Shit. We gotta find him."
"Oh yeah? New York's a big place and there are several portals. We're gonna need help."
Jack thought for a moment. "Fine, follow me. I've got a plan."