1.

The twin spires of the Panopticon thrust up from the lunar surface like a rude gesture; a two-fingered salute aimed at the planet Earth, which hung in the black sky above. The Earth, for its part in all this, seemed indifferent to the slight, whether intended or imagined.

But despite the defiant posturing of their Moon-based headquarters, the Crime Syndicate themselves were in a less than vainglorious mood. Something had rattled the normally confident Super-Criminals, something that had been carried in on the storm of the night before and had refused to leave when that self-same storm had disappeared. Even though they had not all been affected, at least not directly, they had still all felt it; felt the same dark unease that had awoken Superwoman in the night, the same shadow that had passed over all their graves.

Now they were gathered in the meeting room of the Panopticon; Johnny Quick. Power Ring. Superwoman. Owlman. Amerika's gravest villains. At least, that's what they used to be. It was quite possible that the term gravest had now taken on an entirely different meaning for some… such as the one member of the Crime Syndicate not present, for starters.

Ultraman.

The Tyrant of Steel; of Tomorrow; of Centropolis; of the entire Mammon-forsaken world, when you got right down to it. He had been the first of a new breed of Super-Criminal - the 'inspiration' for them all, you could say - and the founder of the Crime Syndicate of Amerika.

So how many times was it now that the rest of them had gathered under these circumstances? Perhaps not this exact situation, but similar enough; the four of them, rallied together to draw plans against their once and future leader. Because, and this was the most ridiculous part of all, he would be their leader again; if they didn't kill him, or if he didn't kill them… and even then, that wasn't necessarily a barrier, especially not at the moment. The Prometheus Gate affair, the Coalition of Tyrants, those experiments with Proto-Matter that he thought no one knew about…

He had been their founder, yes, their inspiration; but that fire which had burned within him, that passion and fury which had driven him to bring together the most powerful – and, by extension, most volatile – Super-Criminals on the planet and to make it work… that didn't simply go away. He was still on fire, still burning from within, and he threatened to burn the world down with him.

It would always come to this, in the end; Ultraman would turn against his own creations, try to smash them from existence so he could start all over again, and they would fight against him. Everything that made them work so well together as a team, what had allowed them to last this long without self-destructing, was exactly what lead them to the brink of self-destruction on such a regular basis. It was inevitable. Undeniable.

"So… are we sure that Ultraman really does wants to kill us?"

Superwoman and Owlman both glared at Power Ring; although Owlman's eyes were hidden behind the reflective lenses of his helmet, the ring wielding super-criminal could tell that his expression was particularly withering. It always was.

"What?" Power Ring threw his hands up in mock exasperation. "Seems like a fair enough question to me… After all, he didn't hurt Superwoman, did he? And he had her dead to rights." He winked at the normally Amorous Amazon. "No pun intended." There was pun intended.

Unfortunately for Power Ring, even if his attempt at humour had actually been funny, Superwoman was definitely not in the mood for jokes. "How dare you," she shouted back at him, her eyes literally burning as she remembered her earlier encounter with the thing that had been her husband; the fear and revulsion she had felt in his presence. But worse still than that, she remembered the perverse lust she had felt as well, the desire to just let go and join him in the darkness; to be his, forever and ever, and damn all who got in their way.

He had hurt her, alright, in the way that only lovers can.

"You weren't there! You don't know what he did, how he… he…"

Before things could escalate any further, in whatever direction that might be, Owlman placed a restraining hand on Superwoman's arm, noting as he did so that she flinched slightly at his touch, though she also didn't pull away. She had always been emotional, yes, but she was always so sure in her emotions, so strong in them. He didn't like seeing her like this, so rattled; so weak.

"I thought you were meant to be the smarter of the two replacement Power Rings, Stewart," Owlman said; his expression was already as severe as it was going to get, so he had to put as much disdain into his voice as possible to help get his point across. "So how is that you can be so Anti-Christing stupid at a time like this?"

Power Ring looked over at Johnny Quick for support, but the normally hyperactive speedster merely shrugged in a way that said 'this is your mess, leave me out of it' just as succinctly as words ever could. More so, considering he usually spoke at speeds of up to a thousand words a minute.

"So Ultraman's a Vampire now," Power Ring replied, leaning forward. "So what? Why would he want to kill us? Why not try and convert us? Make us all into his 'children of the night' or whatever, like he offered to do to Superwoman?"

"Is that what you want?" Johnny Quick suddenly spat up; although you could hear the shock and anger in his voice, his speech patterns were much more subdued than they usually were, much slower. "To be turned into a… a Vampire?"

Power Ring looked at him sideways, out of the corner of his eyes. "Nah man, that's not it - I just don't know what any of this means, what we're supposed to do… are we supposed to start sleeping with stakes under our pillows? Eat a lot of garlic heavy foods? What does a Vampire Ultraman want from us?"

"Now you're starting to get it," Owlman replied, steepling his fingers under his chin.

"What, you mean we are supposed to eat a lot of garlic heavy foods?" Power Ring ventured hesitantly.

"No, you idiot," Owlman snapped back, rolling his eyes behind his goggles. Sometimes he suspected that they feigned incompetence just to annoy him, other times he was sure it was just incompetence. Either way, they certainly succeeded in getting on his nerves. "You were on the right track when you suggested that a Vampire Ultraman would want to convert allies to his cause, you were even right in thinking that he would recruit from the ranks of his former teammates. You were just wrong in assuming that he would exclusively target his living teammates.

"Ultraman doesn't need to turn anymore of us into the undead… he's got his very own Vampire Syndicate of Amerika already!"