Chapter 3-: Oppression
A sea of glittering black eyes watched her without blinking. The vampires flanked the man on either side, so many of them they turned the walls black as pitch, pitch interspersed with a nastily bright shade of pink where their fur didn't quite cover distended bellies.
Boom-dum. Boom-tap.
There was a sound that started like a dull tap, and Alexandria would have been tempted to call it a drum if it was not for the sheer fleshy sound of it. No, it was a heartbeat, so loud it could be heard in the naked silence.
Boom-tap. Boom-dum.
Something else, oily and slick, almost as if its very form was amorphous for a second before it seemed to gain definition. Monstrous corded muscle arms, dark as unblemished coal, seemed to drink in the light. It moved almost like a gorilla, but its face was more like a snout, like someone had once seen a dog, or maybe a bat, and then stretched, flattened, and expanded the face until it was a grotesque abomination with the texture of tar. The thing slunk up behind the 'Lord,' lingering just to his right side, Alexandria's eye flicked to its feet for a second, it didn't leave any residue, so she dismissed the idea that it was literal tar.
As obvious a Brute as one could be. Often the easiest to defeat were the physical brutes, the more insidious were the ones that didn't seem like they should be able to have the strength they did. Brutes like Alexandria. Like the Siberian. Where appearances utterly belied reality.
From the seething darkness of bodies, another slipped free, also flanking the 'Lord.' The 'Lord' himself was clothed in blue and turquoise fibers, maybe painted cactus fibers but so finely woven it was almost impossible to perceive the actual substance. A golden crown was set atop his face, with a single golden bird atop, and a half mask of red descending from the crown. The half of his face Alexandria could see shifted, the skin growing dusky red, like paint. The man, and Alexandria doubted it was a man at all stood head and shoulders above the mewling vampires, who all hissed, hair puffed up like over-large cats.
A giant amidst men, yes, 'lord' was apt, if even in the mere physical sense.
"Godling?" Alexandria replied, tone softly questioning, almost as if she was observing the figure in front of her as a disinterested monarch, an errant insect buzzing against the windowsill. The way the figure spoke her name, the way it almost made her shiver, despite such an action being impossible made Alexandria. . . not hesitate per se, but did make her elect to observe for a moment. To still her strike of a split second.
The man smiled. And Alexandria knew without a shadow of a doubt that it was not human.
"You did not think your transgressions against my Court went unnoticed? My, how pitiful. Still, I shall indulge, godling, I deem, before I savor your life," The man said, licking his licks with a black tongue, flecked with pink, far too long for his mouth. His black eyes glittered, reflecting the light off the torch in her hand.
Alexandria raised her eyebrow, and spoke in a voice as dry as the summer heat, "If I cared for base subtlety you would not have known, Lord."
Unspoken were the words that Lord was a mocking affectation. The barb was not lost on the Lord, however, and Alexandria could see the almost microscopic tightening around the black pits of murk that were his eyes.
"Ah," he laughed, the sound sending the other vampires quailing away from him, idly waving one of his hands, as if in amusement. The sound started out as an almost human laugh, before it became higher and higher, becoming more shrill and inhuman. In it, he held a red and turquoise rod of what at first seemed to be rope, but Alexandria realized a moment later that it must be hair, either horsehair or human, painted and dyed, "An errant godling, newly ascended from the ranks of chattel, still glutted on its divinity. Flailing about, ignorant of the way it's been measured and studied! You would not be the first god that sacrificed her lifeblood to me. What hubris! To use Alexandria as your epithet! Did you not think we have records of the world beyond the sea?"
Alexandria almost pursed her lips, her smile grim, "I'm afraid that you've made an error, then."
"Well?" The Lord said, his tone almost saccharine, still mocking, "Enlighten me."
Alexandria considered a long moment, or at least a long moment in her mind, sparsely more than a micro-second passing in the exchange. It was clear that this world of myths and legends had finally decided that she belonged, that she fit in some paradigm. Some had already come closer than others. The Fae had known of Eden somehow, and the Queen of Winter had accused her of claiming an ephemeral mantle. Claiming but not claimed. These creatures found surety and confidence through knowledge of the unknown.
"I'm from the New World," Alexandria replied succinctly, and immediately she could see something about what she said, maybe even the way she said it, unsettled the Lord, something about being from set its hackles up. She could tell, in the way the darkness shifted and rolled, twisting in dark tendrils. How the shadowy darkness seemed to pull into the vampire Lord's eye sockets like twin chasms had manifested within its skull. Was it some weakness endemic to the New World?
The lord's lower jaw clicked, its teeth looking off, inhuman for an instant, before it hissed, the noise like the scales of a vast serpent on stone. The gathered vampires shifted as one like an undulating wave. Tense and still after the movement, poised to strike. Alexandria floated serenely, almost goading them to make the first move. The flickering of her torch cast the room in eerie shadow, the gangly and bandy-legged limbs of the creatures casting monstrous adumbrations over the tapestry-covered walls behind them.
"You don't need that light, do you?" The words in ancient Maya slipped free from the self-proclaimed Lord. The words were oily, and the world seemed to quiver for a moment, seeming to almost stutter as Alexandria floated.
The burning brand in Alexandria's hand, sputtered like it was placed in a vacuum, before it suffocated down the embers instantly, turning black and cold and dead in Alexandria's adamantine grip. The torch's residual heat slipped away in that same moment, abruptly returning to the same ambient temperature as the entire hall.
Alexandria was left in total black darkness.
Boom-dum. Boom-tap.
The heartbeats went. Alexandria stood silently and utterly, perfectly still. No breath came from her lungs, no errant thrum of blood in her veins to distract her, at least none that disturbed her complete concentration.
The scrape of countless sharp talons against marble, gouging into the stone.
The world, the darkness, bloomed with scarlet light, a shining arc of crimson electricity, speeding out toward her like it was an extended plasma filament. At the same time, only milliseconds behind, a crushing force extended, squarely centered around the superheroine. Alexandria could feel it zero in around her body, her mind, a primal command not to move. She could somehow feel the difference, could somehow differentiate the difference. It wasn't gravity, not really, but somehow it possessed the same gravitas, the same overwhelming weight.
No. Alexandria thought, not gravity, something else.
She did not move. The pressure spiked, stabbing into the world, and yet Alexandria still floated. Her heels remained a scant few inches from the ground. Her power, she could almost feel it, the split second her power could have given in, could have but did not before it remained. Her body hung undisturbed, elevated above the Earth.
The scarlet filament, red lightning stretched out from the fetish made of human hair clutched in the all too human hand of the Lord, his dark eyes seeming to widen with surprise, features highlighted with dark shadows by the arcing lighting.
Fool, Alexandria murmured in the quiet of her own mind, admitting all the same that it was a clever tactic, to extinguish the light and then in the next instant, strike with light. A deliberate flashbang as it was, just in another form. Except, of course, the fact that Alexandria's eyes didn't react to the light the same way as a non-parahuman. Her pupil did not expand involuntarily, no, instead, it was as inviolate and deliberate as any of her other bodily functions.
She spun away, tendrils of red lightning dancing across her overcoat for just a second before the main arc of the filament buzzed past her, slamming into the rock with a sound of cracking stone. In between that instant and the next beat of the drum-like hearts she was among the squirming vampires, even as the light died. Alexandria's eyes tightened.
Flesh parted beneath her arm, oily fur caught between her unyielding fingers. She could feel the scrape of talons against her coat, could feel the blood splatter against her face and lips.
She crushed an arm that gouged toward her eyes, she could feel talons scrape against the ruined pit of her other eye. A vampire's keening wail of distress echoed before her fingers closed around its thick throat and did not stop, just continued through, cleaving straight through the flesh, bone, and spine of the vampire without regard.
Alexandria killed, and killed, and killed in the darkness. Between beats of the heart and the next.
Something massive crashed into her side, seeking for an instant to move her. The beating of the drum heartbeat deafening. Her fingers closed around its arm, and the other found the creature's shoulder. It screamed a hunting cry, the noise like a ship's foghorn blended with an overloud tea kettle brought to boil. Alexandria almost didn't even need to wrench, the creature's own lunge away sufficient to tear its arm from its socket. Black tar splattered against the front of her overcoat, seeming oddly heavy.
The world lit up again, scant moments having passed in between one instant of combat and the next. Single ticks of the second hand on a watch. Broken and twisted bodies lay around Alexandria, each a vampire. One of the brutish oily things stood out of her reach, enormous gorilla-like hands clutching at its stump. In its obsidian black eyes burned sheer hunger and fury.
Alexandria darted forward in midair, the air trembling at her passage. The creature struck out, with a sheer speed that belied its size and Alexandria caught the other arm, pulling the creature in an easy motion and flipping it over her back, sending it sailing through the air to impact the marble wall far behind her. She could hear the marble crack even as the red lightning narrowly missed her form again, instead impacting the crowd of rabid vampires behind, instantly immolating them into black vapor in the blink of an eye.
Alexandria was accustomed to tanking blaster powers. To let them hit and then to let the perpetrator despair. It was a surprisingly potent tactic, especially when they thought maybe they had her dead to rights. Yet, that was usually when she had a firm understanding of what exactly was being shot at her. After all, for almost twenty years she'd led a career as invulnerable, marred only by a greater monster than she, and there were far more esoteric effects than even she knew. It would be a calculated risk to get hit by the scarlet lightning fulminate, after all, it seemed like ordinary lightning, albeit sufficiently diverged from the usual color spectrum.
Yet, it was slow and ponderous, lighting up the room so delightfully.
Alexandria flew forward, shattering the limbs of the vampires around her, even as they leaped toward her. They were weak and broken things. The air ignited again, immolating his own fellow vampires with abandon as he tried and failed to draw a bead on her.
The air warped and cracked, and Alexandria was before the vampire Lord in the next instant, a single fist outstretched toward the fetish in his hand, still trailing red sparks. Alexandria could see it as his black eyes widened behind the red mask, the snarl upon his lips and then there was-
Resistance.
The force of her punch slammed against a barrier she could not move. Against a force that could have shattered the stone face of Mount Rushmore itself, a shield manifested between fist and target. It was a shimmering scarlet color and appeared as a perfect hemi-circle, extending up toward the ceiling.
Alexandria's feet touched the ground as she grounded herself against the stone, keeping pressure against the shield. The marble cracked in all directions as Alexandria merely touched the floor.
"Foolish godling! I am Bitol, a god!" The vampire spit, its tongue trailing its lips, "I know more of magic than you could ever dream!"
Alexandria did not respond at first, holding still for an instant before she began to press with her hand against the glimmering scarlet shield that had popped into being between them, testing the strength. She understood what was posturing and bravado and what was actually real. The truth of the matter was immensely simple, she had rattled the creature, and very badly. It didn't let it truly show, not really, but the way its anger suffused its voice, the way the Lord's fingers had tightened on the fetish spoke volumes.
"You would need to be a god in truth to stop me," Alexandria spoke, almost murmured, the words almost taboo to her mouth, "I've fought worse. I have seen cities drowned, irradiated and shattered, the entire populace driven mad. If you are a god, you're a feeble god."
The vampire snarled, and Alexandria could feel as his power settled around her, almost choking the very air, pressing downward, wanting to press her into the Earth. Alexandria set her teeth in a grimace, staring into the black fetid eyes of the vampire in front of her, as its flesh bulged and slithered, muscles shifting beneath skin. A vein ticked across its faces, as the force stretched and reached, trying to etch a truth into the world, that her legs would bow in supplication.
No. The vampire's features were illuminated in the red of the shield. Alexandria could feel the squalid vampires behind her prying at her limbs, scratching at her clothing, tearing into the fabric. No talons could pierce her flesh. A sword slashed into her arm, the blade shattering like fine china from the force. She could hear gunshots and the dull point of bullets impacting her back
Alexandria set her feet firmly into the marble beneath her feet effortlessly, feeling the fine powder between her toes. She reached out with both hands, spreading her fingers to press ten points into the shield and then she began to press in earnest, not just testing but now setting her strength against the vampire's construct.
The vampire's brow furrowed, a massive shard of black obsidian erupting from the ground, sliding toward Alexandria like a stone butcher's cleaver. Alexandria lifted one of her hands for an instant, slapping the shard away along its faultline, shattering it into fist-sized shards that in turn hit her body, the inertia still lingering in the disparate chunks.
Alexandria pushed.
The world screamed, something inviolate giving way. The cavern shuddered, white dust falling all around her. The vampires surged away, suddenly frantic to get away. The vampire in front of her grinned a rictus smile, shedding its flesh, an enormous malformed bat sloughing off its skin to stand on the other side of the shield. Bile and saliva poured from its gaping maw. Its flesh was black and pink, its belly enormously distended. The vampire's eyes were huge and angry, drinking in the light radiating from its shield beneath its red mask.
Black, tar hands grabbed at Alexandria closing around each arm. In turn, Alexandria relaxed for just a second and then whipped her hands down, breaking the grip. She shifted in one easy motion, pulling one of the tar creatures off balance, sending it shuffling forward, only to slam its meaty pitch fists into the shield with a sound like cracking glass.
Alexandria's other hand grabbed the other by the throat, swinging herself around until it was in between her and glass, and then surged forward, her fingers seeping into the tar and slamming the creature's head into the shield. The head popped like a grape on impact, splattering black tar over the floor and ceiling. Alexandria barely spared an instant of thought for the other, slapping it away almost negligently.
Its enormous body let out a sound like a boiling kettle, tumbling ass over heels into the wall next to them with an enormous crash.
The vampire Lord, Bitol grimaced, as much as it could be a chiropteran visage. His tongue, black and pink licked his lips, stopping for a moment as it encountered black blood running down from its gaping nostrils.
"Now," Alexandria said, commanding, "Tell me where Pietrovich is, or you die."
"No." The vampire replied, "No. You will die, godling. Let this be your tomb if I cannot drink from thee."
The ground shook, trembling, lines of cracks forming in the marble. Alexandria realized in an instant what the vampire intended and lifted her arms above her head. The entire ceiling collapsed far overhead and plummeted down, rushing toward Alexandria as if guided by some malevolent will. And it was, guided by a malevolent will, that was, pressing down into her with the force of the world.
Alexandria's fingers caught the stone, the pressure pushing against her flesh, down toward the ground, her fingers, against her will started to seep upward, dragging great rents into the pure stone.
The vampire blinked, its shield flickering, and stepped backward, reality itself seeming to shiver and twist aside, a sheer doorway cutting into the world. For a moment Alexandria allowed herself to feel surprise, a door? Doormaker? Here, for this thing? Before she realized that it didn't look the same, it wasn't a door, but a wound cut around the edges with a sharp knife, but a knife nonetheless. Alexandria dropped her hands, letting the stone begin to plummet, and stabbed forward, her flight carrying her forward in a raw instant.
The shield cracked, the world boomed, and Alexandria caught the vampire's winged arm for just a second, her fingers digging straight into muscle to close around the bone. Bitol's jaws barred in a wordless snarl, as he stared back at her with eyes glittering with the dark malice. Then the doorway slammed shut on the vampire's own arm, severing it where the upper humerus would be on a human.
The arm itself, oily, with fur as dark as pitch remained in Alexandria's relentless grip.
Stone slammed into Alexandria's back in the next instant, burying her alive beneath the weight of an entire fortress.
All that, just for a single arm?
Her prey had escaped.