Book One

This is the first Book of Reaper. It starts off the entire story.

## Prologue

*It was billions of years ago...when the universe was still young...*

An alarm sounded, lights went red. Many green-skinned, almost alien-looking people were escaping to starships which looked highly advanced, even for extraterrestrial standards.

"Do you see that?!" One of the aliens, seemingly higher ranked based on his better trimmoutfit, shouts, scared. "I do see it, the monster is devouring our world." A female, also high-ranked, answers.

Children were being put into stasis pods. Then, a blast hit the ship they were on, knocking one of the pods away. "No! Khaekre!" The woman screamed, beginning to cry, as the ship departed from the world, which appeared to be nothing but a wasteland at this point...

## Chapter One

The sun was slowly rising off in the horizon, signaling a new day. In one nice little house, a boy with brown hair and tanned skin opened his brown eyes. "Oh...It's morning. I guess I'll get up." The boy, looking to be around fourteen, says sleepily before getting out of bed, taking a shower, and putting on his clothes, a black shirt with a classic alien face on it.

"Trevor! There's breakfast!" A voice says from down the stairs. "Okay, Mom! Coming!" Trevor shouts back, walking down the stairs to see his mother, a woman with brown hair, had made pancakes. "Yay!" Trevor exclaims, rushing to eat the pancakes. "This is good!" "Well, I wanted to give my little boy a nice meal on his first day of school." She replies, smiling.

Trevor spits out the orange juice he was drinking. 'Wait, it's today?!" He shouts. "Are you nervous?" His mother asks. "No...yes...maybe..." Trevor says, getting increasingly quieter and quieter. "It's okay, I'm sure they'll love you." She says comfortingly. "Yeah, they-they will." Trevor answers, before finishing his pancakes and getting his backpack and shoes.

Trevor was about to walk outside when his mother walked up to him. "Did you pack everything you need? Schoolbooks, equipment--" She starts, before being interrupted by Trevor. "I did. I packed everything, in fact I might've overpacked." He said. "That's okay. You're prepared. " She answers. "Just don't worry about everything, okay?" "O-okay. I'll be brave!" Trevor says. She smiles and walks back inside, as the school bus arrives.

"Woo...okay...deep breaths..." Trevor mutters to himself, as he gets on the bus and looks for a seat. *"Not there, already taken...oh, there's one."* Trevor thinks to himself, before walking over to an empty seat in the back. As he sits down, he looks out the window and sees the bus start to move.

Sometime during the bus drive, Trevor absentmindedly looked over to the side, and saw a girl with pale white skin and hair, with red eyes and curved ears, wearing a black jacket. Trevor didn't say anything for a while, just turning back to the window. Soon, the bus stopped.

"We're here at Reaper High!" The bus driver said. *"That's a weird name for a school."* Trevor thinks to himself, as they all got out of the bus, the girl lifting her hood over her head. Trevor and the other students walk into the quite large school, as they look over and begin to take their seats when a man with brilliant yellow eyes walks in. "Oh, hello! You must be the new students. So nice to meet you all and welcome to Reaper High! Names please, uh...Danilbek Machacek."

"Here." A boy with blond hair and paler skin said, smiling slightly.

"Noelle Rosette." The man asks.

"Here." A girl with black hair and blue streak through it, blue eyes and wearing a jacket, said.

"Kevin Mitchel." The man asks.

"Here!" A redhead boy with amber eyes wearing a school uniform shouted smugly.

"Sabrina Kirkland." The man asks.

"Here." A redhead girl with blue eyes wearing a white crop top answers.

"Wen Kuo." The man asks.

"Here." A boy with black hair and eyes answers.

"Akina Kitimura." The man asks, getting the response "Here." From a girl wearing a kimono. The man then asks "Crith Cruinne.", getting an emotionless "Here." from a boy with pure white skin, black hair covering his left eye, a red eye, and a red tear-like marking beneath it, wearing a tight black suit with a tall collar.

"Azad İlqaroğlu." The man asks, earning "Here." from a boy with black-blond hair and pale skin with green eyes, wearing a blue suit. He then asks "Wanda De Blase.", a girl with brown hair and grey eyes replying "Present."

The man continues to call out names, before finishing with four. "Connor Zelinger." He asks. "Here." A boy with tanned skin, brilliant blue eyes and black hair answers. The man then asks "Khaldun Georgas.", earning a response from a taller, more muscular boy with a golden left arm, wearing a white tank top, with pale green skin, golden hair and green eyes. "I'm here, Sir." Khaldun says.

"Charlotte Nechita." The man asks. "Here." The girl from before answers. "Trevor Dillard." The man finishes with.

Trevor starts to sweat a bit and shrinks lower into his seat. "Are you Trevor?" A soft female voice asks nicely. Trevor looks over to see that it was the girl, Charlotte, that had said it. "Uh...I-I'm here." Trevor says finally. "Okay." The man says. "My name is Meneo Rossini, I'm the Principal of this School you will be learning at." He says. "This School is to help you learn about the world. Chemistry, Computing, Math, History, even learning how to control your Mutation and awaken your Eletero, a life force in all living things." "A lot of luck I have, then." Trevor says quietly.

"You may go exploring. This is the first day of School, after all. You can choose the topics." Rossini says, before walking away happy. "I guess we'll just go to the biology class?" Connor asks. The other students follow him to a room with an older man wearing glasses and fiddling with a rubix cube. "Hello, Professor..." Khaldun says. "Oh!" The Professor looks up. "Hello Class. You can call me Mr. Coffey." He says. "How about we just call you Coffee?" Kevin says, laughing.

"Okay." Coffey says. "Everyone sit down and raise your hand when you want to talk." Everyone sits in their seats. Trevor notices Charlotte sitting next to him, but decides to focus on Coffey. "Okay...which species on Earth will out last all others?" Coffey asks. "Cockroaches." Kevin says. "Cause they're unkillable--" "Your hand wasn't raised but I liked your joke, Kevin." Coffey says, smiling. "Does anyone else have an answer?"

Trevor thinks. *"What species is the most likely to survive? Tartigrades? They're basically immortal but...they can be killed by snails. Plankton? No, no! They get eaten all the time--"*

"Humans." Charlotte says. "Oh, why is that, Charlotte?" Coffey asks. "Because even if weak individually, together they can achieve anything. "Oh, well...I certainly hope Charlotte's right--" Coffey starts, before being interrupted by Kevin. "What do you mean 'they'?!" Kevin demands Charlotte, who bows her head down. "Are you going to hurt me for it?" She asks timidly, as Crith looks at Kevin. "You should simply accept that not only humans will be here. It doesn't matter who is what in the first place." Kevin growls. "Fine! I'll stop." Kevin mutters, before they are handed biology books.

"I just want you to read the first few chapters for today." Coffey says. They read the chapters and are asked to take notes. When they had finished, they walked out. "I'll see you tomorrow, Class." Coffey says happily, waving. "He's a nice teacher." Rosette says. "I know, right?" Machacek replies.

They walked over to the lockers and began to change into their gym clothes, as they come over to the gym and walk inside, being greeted by a muscular man wearing a hat. "So, you're the little shrimp who came to my gym!" The man shouts, making everyone except Khaldun and Crith flinch back a bit. "Hello, Mr...." Khaldun starts. "That's Marshall to you!" Marshall answers, before walking over to a box of dodgeballs. "As you can see, I've painted them red and blue for the different teams." Marshall explains. "Teams?" Khaldun asks.

"Red and Blue." Marshall answers. "Georgas, Nechita, Zelinger, Rosette, Kuo, Dillard! You are on Team Red!" Marshall shouts. "Mitchell, Kirkland, Machacek, Kitamura, Cruinne, İlqaroğlu! You six are on Team Blue!" He finishes, throwing them their respective dodgeballs and walking to sit at the pedestal. "When I blow this whistle, you are to ALL face me! Anyone who gets hit with a dodgeball is out! No cheating! UNDERSTOOD?!"

Everyone nods quickly, except for Khaldun, who nods slowly, and Crith, who doesn't nod at all. Then, the counter starts. "Three...two...one...DODGE!" Marshall yells.

Dodgeballs fly through the air. Everyone dodges except Crith, who stands there and lets a dodgeball smack him in the face before it just falls to the ground. Khaldun was using his normal arm to throw dodgeballs, which Machacek countered with his own dodgeballs before throwing them around, hitting Kuo on the lip. "Ow!" Kuo shouts, before the whistle is finally blown.

"Cruinne, Kuo! You two are out!" Marshall shouts, prompting Kuo to run out of the room for medical treatment and Crith to just walk out of the room. Kirkland and Rosette were throwing dodgeballs at each other, as one zoomed past Trevor's head and nearly hit his ear. "Ah!" Trevor shouts, throwing a dodgeball as hard as he can in the direction he's facing, hearing it hit someone.

Trevor opens his eyes and sees Charlotte holding the dodgeball, before throwing it at Kevin, hitting him in the nose, making it bleed. "GRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAOWWWWWWWWWWWWWW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" Kevin screams. "YOU'LL PAY FOR THAT!" Kevin then starts lobbing dogdeballs at Charlotte like crazy, as she dodges them and one accidentally ricochets off the wall, hitting Marshall in the face and knocking him out.

"You hurt a teacher!" Connor shouts before throwing a dodgeball at Kevin, who dodges and lets it hit Machacek instead. "OW!" Machacek shouts, before falling over, dizzy. Charlotte then hits Kirkland in the leg with a dodgeball, Kirkland leaving the gym. "GET BACK HERE, YOU TRAITOR!" Kevin shouts at Kirkland, when Trevor manages to knock him over with another dodgeball, ending the game as Khaldun had taken out İlqaroğlu.

"Well...that's one way to win Dodgeball..." Khaldun says, before walking over to place his hand on Marshall's forehead, waking him up. "GRAH! MITCHEL!" Marshall screams in rage, as Mitachell, terrified, wakes up and bolts out of the room as fast as he can. "I'm going to report this to the Principal." Khaldun says, before walking out of the room.

Trevor walks into the Cafeteria and looks around before walking over to a booth to ask for food, when he gets pushed out of the way by Kevin, who had bandaged his nose. "Hey, Trevor...you're little vampire friend, yeah, she hurt me, and then you did. So you know what? You're not getting anything to eat. And if you argue, I'll throw you in your locker!" Kevin says, laughing. Trevor bows his head down and walks away. "Okay..." He says, walking out of the Cafeteria.

As the schoolday ended, everyone got back on the bus, Kevin rubbing his neck from whatever Rossini did. As Trevor sits back down on his seat, Charlotte sits next to him and hands him a paper bag. "Huh?" Trevor asks. "I saw you didn't get anything to eat, so I snuck some food in for you." Charlotte says, smiling. "Th-hank you. That's so n-nice..." Trevor says, slightly blushing, as he opens the bag and begins to eat his hot dog.

Trevor was the last to get off the bus, as he walked into the house and was greeted by his mother. "Welcome home, Trevor!" She shouts enthusiastically. "Hi, Mom." Trevor says. "How was your day?" She asks him. "I met a lot of people and learned about what DNA is." Trevor says. "I also met this g-girl...her name's Ch-Charlotte..." Trevor stutters, as his mother smiles. "Aww...you have a crush." She says, causing Trevor to blush. "N-no! It's not l-like that! She-she was just...nice to me..." "Okay. Off to bed, Goober." She says, Trevor walking upstairs and changing into his pajamas, before getting into bed and dreaming the same dream as last night, a pair of wings...

## Chapter Two

The night was so peaceful, everyone was snoozing in their beds, happy and healthy. Nothing could ever bother them, they were all safe.

But this was not the case tonight.

Multiple men wearing black business suits and black ties, undershirts and trilbies were walking through a dark harbor, their seeming leader a man with the same red hair and yellow eyes as Kevin, and the same smug face. They walked over to a group of people wearing studded black leather jackets and gold necklaces. The leader of this group was wearing a pair of golden glasses.

"Hey! Who're you all?" The leader says. "You all look so classy, but what're you doin' here?" He demands of them. The Kevin-esk man chuckles. "My name is Darren Mitchel, and I am here to...liberate...this city for a greater purpose." "Oh, really?" The man demands. "This is MY city!" The man suddenly feels something pierce his stomach. "It's the Quadrilogy's city now, Joseph Pierce." Darren replies, before ripping the knife out of Pierce and letting him fall dead to the ground.

Trevor was waving goodbye to his mother, who was smiling happily at him. He then gets on the bus and sits down next to Charlotte. "Hi, Trevor." Charlotte says sweetly, making Trevor blush. "Ch-Charlotte...?" Trevor stutters timidly, as the bus starts moving.

"Are you feeling okay?" Charlotte asks. "H-huh...?" Trevor stammers. "Wh-what d-do y-you..." "You just seem a bit sad." Charlotte answers. "Don't worry, it's okay." Charlotte says, smiling. Trevor sees that she has fangs, but feels reassured.

As the bus comes to a stop, Trevor steps out. Charlotte was walking beside him, as they heard sniggering and turned around to see Kevin. "Huh?" Charlotte exclaims. "Oh, my dad took out this crime boss called Joe Pierce last night, while all of you were in your beds, scared of him!" Kevin says smugly, as Charlotte walked away. Trevor walks to be beside her, but starts to get pushed around by the other students present.

"What are they teaching today?" Connor asks. "I think we're learning who has a Mutation and who doesn't." Khaldun answers, as they all walk in to see a sign directing them to the gym. "Not Marshall." Trevor and and plenty of others moan. They all walk to the gym.

When they get there, Coffey and Marshall are standing at the entrance, everyone easing up at the sight of Coffey, but still remaining alert at the sight of Marshall. Crith just remained emotionless, as they all walked into the gym. "You had better give 'em a hard time!" Marshall shouts at Coffey. "But I'm the biology professor." Coffey retorts. "It's your job to be the mean one."

They then turn to the students. "Alright, Class. As you know, all human beings are born with a Mutation, some of these Mutations can act like the superpowers you read about in comic books or see on TV." Coffey says. "As such, we're gonna' see if you have a Mutation, and then you can train to master it!" Marshall adds. "Of course, there are people here who obviously have a Mutation, like Miss Nechita and Mr. Georgas." Coffey says. "But you will all get to train hard!" Marshall finishes.

Everyone starts trying to activate their hopefully thee Mutations, as Kevin seems to be struggling comically. Trevor just doesn't try at all, and walks to sit on a bench. Charlotte was dominating the gym in physical prowess, as Khaldun lifted a hundred pound weight with one arm. Rosette started to lift things without touching them as Sabrina accidentally cuts a punching bag in half with a translucent glowing blue sword. Connor was just punching.

"Not all of them have Mutations. That's okay." Coffey says brightly. "Is it? When we've got so much on our plate?" Marshall demands. The timer sounds, and Charlotte was standing there, having cleared the course an hour ago. "She's got some skills." Marshall says, appalled, as they walk out of the gym and head for the cafeteria.

"Okay, I'm getting something to eat." Trevor says, walking over to the hot dog booth. Then, Kevin shouts at Trevor. "Out of the way, food's mine!" "Uh..." Trevor responds, beginning to inch away from the hot dog booth. "Hey!" Charlotte shouts at Kevin. "Let him eat. He's human, just like you. He needs to eat." She says, Kevin growling. "Oh, so you have a *girlfriend* now, Trevor?" Kevin demands, making Trevor go brick red, and Charlotte, blushing, slap Kevin into the wall, cracking it.

"Ow..." Kevin moans, as Charlotte gets Trevor a hot dog. "Th-thank you again...I can't st-stand up to him..." Trevor says. Charlotte puts her hand on his shoulder. "Don't let everyone beat you up." She says to him. "You can stand up to anyone who oppresses you. You just need to find our confidence." "...And what if I don't...h-have confidence..." Trevor asks quietly. Charlotte cups his hands. "Then I'll help you build it." She answers, smiling softly.

Later that night, Darren was smiling to himself, walking around a riverside warehouse. "This is gonna' be profitable." Darren says, when a few grunts of pain are heard. Darren turns around to see a man wearing golden, Egyptian-esk armor standing there, letting go of one of the leather jacketed men from before.

"Darren Mitchel..." The man says. "Oh, and what should I call you?" Darren asks. "...Felix." The golden man answers, pointing a gun at Darren and his men. "I'm out. You guys deal with him while I go find my weapons." Darren says, walking out as the others fire at Felix, only to be taken down just in time for the police to arrive.

## Chapter Three

Trevor woke up with a yelp at the sound of an alarm clock ringing. "Ah! It's morning already?!" Trevor shouts, looking out the window at the sun rising. Trevor quickly takes a shower and gets dressed, running down the stairs to get a quick cereal breakfast. "Okay, Trevor. We've got about a minute until we have to go." His mother says.

A few minutes later, they get into her van and start to drive away. "How do you like school so far?" She asks. "Oh, uh...it's...it's okay..." Trevor says. "Have you made any friends?" She then asks. "Uh..." Trevor trails off, blushing a little.

As they arrive at the school, there are a lot of other vehicles parked there, with everyone's parents present. Darren seemed to be there too, admiring the architecture. Khaldun seemed to be eyeing Darren suspiciously, but if he was, it was hard to actually tell.

"Trevor!" Charlotte shouts happily, running over to him. "Ch-Charlotte..." Trevor stutters, blushing. His mother smiles. "Is this the girl you like?" She asks, making Charlotte start blushing a little, and making Trevor's face turn brick red. "Oh, sorry!" His mother says, looking over from them to Darren, before walking over to him.

Charlotte holds Trevor's hand as they walk into the school, seeing Rossini standing there. "Welcome, my wonderful students!" Rossini says enthusiastically. "As you all know, today is Take your Parents to School Day! Please, look around and be sure to leave positive reviews of our little place."

"Ahem!" A male voice says from behind them. Rossini looks over to see a man with black hair and bright blue eyes, with a burnmark on the right. He was wearing a black suit with a white undersuit and blue tie. "Who are you and what are you doing in my school?" Rossini asks.

"My name is Franklin Black, the District Attorney and a paid Lawyer here in Killeen." He answers, before walking around. "I heard a crime lord might be here, so I'm gonna' have to stick around for the time being." "O...kay..." Rossini replies. "Anyways, ignoring that interruption, go ahead and explore our school." Rossini finishes.

Charlotte smiles and takes Trevor over to a hallway. "Wha--" Trevor starts, before Charlotte kisses him on the cheek. Trevor's face turns pure red. "H-huh?" Trevor exclaims. "It means..." Charlotte starts, before looking down and blushing.

The day went by quickly, and the students were about to get started on their last class--History.

They all walked into the room to see an older looking woman with a purple dress on. "Hello, Class." She says. "Welcome to History. Call me Professor Lawson." She starts handing them books. "Let me make this crystal clear: You are here to study **history**, **nothing else**. **I do not want you fooling around in this classroom**. **Do you understand**?"

Everyone nods quickly, except Crith, who stays still and opens his book to read. As everyone else is reading, Lawson starts speaking. "Please turn your pages to the Babylonic Era, the first recorded Civilization in history." An hour-long class later, everyone was leaving, with a few of the more unruly students complaining about Lawson.

Trevor and Charlotte meet up with Trevor's mother, who was chatting with Darren. "Oh, hello there, Trevor Dillard." Darren says politely. "You're this beautiful woman's son, correct? And I see you have someone of your own in your life." Darren looks over to Charlotte. "Hi." Charlotte says, as his mother chuckles. "I never told you my name, did I? It's Vanessa." She says. "Ah, what a beautiful name." Darren says, then checking his watch and sighing. "I'm afraid we both have to be getting home. It was nice meeting you, and I do hope to see you again." Darren says, as he tips his hat and walks away. "He's so handsome..." Vanessa says, half-dazed. "Mom?" Trevor asks, bringing Vanessa back to reality.

"Oh, right!" Vanessa says, unlocking her van as she and Trevor got in. Charlotte walks up to Vanessa. "Um...would it be okay if...if I could come with you?" Charlotte asks, blushing a little bit. "Sure." Vanessa answers happily. Charlotte smiles and gets in the van next to Trevor, holding his hand. "Charlotte?" Trevor says. "I wanna see your home, Trevor." Charlotte says, smiling sweetly at him.

As the van came to a stop, Trevor and Charlotte walked into the house with Vanessa, who started to prepare dinner. "I can't have anything with garlic." Charlotte says. "Okay, I know just what to make." Vanessa answers. A few minutes later, they are served bowls of Macaroni and Cheese.

As they have their meals, Charlotte seems to periodically give Trevor some of her Macaroni and Cheese. "Huh?" Trevor asks. "I don't need as much food as others." Charlotte says.

When they had finished, Trevor walks up his room, as Charlotte walks to be beside him. "You're so...so nice." Trevor says. "Do I...deser...?" Trevor trails off as Charlotte gives him pricavy to change into his pajamas. As Trevor lays down in his bed, Charlotte was sitting in a chair, smiling at him.

Connor was walking through a dark warehouse, having been dared to by Machacek. "There's nothing scary down here..." Connor says, sounding a little bored. As he is about to leave, he hears footsteps and turns around to face the darkness.

The lights flicker for the briefest of moments, and Connor sees a man wearing a pitch-black exosuit with a demented skull mask crossing his arms and glaring at him with black eyes and sclera, and white pupils. Connor yelps and starts running away, hearing the footsteps pick up speed. Connor runs faster and faster and bursts out of the warehouse, looking behind him to see no one there. He slaps his arm behind him but feels nothing. "Phew." Connor says, before walking away from the warehouse.

## Chapter Four

An aged man was tinkering with something, an old, used gun strapped to the wall. "My wife, she'll love this..." The man says absentmindedly, before hearing his door open.

"Wha...?" The man says, grabbing his gun and walking through his dark house. "Whoever you are, I'm armed!" He shouts. He hears something and turns around, but there is no on there. The lights flicker behind him as he thinks he begins to hear footsteps, and a silhouette can be seen behind him. The man turns around and fires his gun, seeing no one there.

Something slices through the man's chest. He turns around, bleeding out of his mouth, and screams at whatever he saw. The screams did not last long.

Outside, birds were chirping, and the sun had been up for some time. Trevor slowly opens his eyes, seeing Charlotte resting in his bed with him. "...huh...?" Trevor mutters, as he gets out of bed and walks to take a shower.

As Trevor puts his normal clothes on and walks out of the bathroom, Charlotte greets him. "Good morning." She says sweetly, smiling at him. "M-morning..." Trevor says back, as Charlotte grabs his hands and takes him to the kitchen for Breakfast.

Vanessa had made oatmeal, and was serving it to them. "Yay." Trevor says, digging into his meal, as Charlotte eats only a little. The TV turns on.

"Breaking News! Just last night, David Tyler, an ex-marine from WWII, was found dead in his own home with a bleeding gash in his chest. The door seems to have been forced open and the lights tampered with. This is what his wife had to say on the matter." A news lady says.

"D-David was s-such a g-good man! I-I don't kn-know why a-anyone would k-kill him!" David's wife says shakily, crying. "Th-they butchered h-him!"

"WHAT?!" Trevor shouts, terrified. Charlotte looks angry at the TV all of a sudden, as Vanessa looked concerned.

"The FBI is working on finding and stopping this madman, before we have more deaths on our hands." The news lady says. "Thanks for watching and as always: We are Channel 13." The TV turns off.

Everyone was silent for a bit, before Charlotte broke it. "I don't know what that was...I'm usually much happier than that." Charlotte says, a bit sadly.

As everyone got off the bus and walked into the school, they looked over at a man with partially grey hair and a small goatee. He was bowing towards them. "Greetings, students. I am Marko Hartmann, your Chemistry Professor." He says. "Today will be a school project: We are making a volcano!"

Pretty much everyone in the room looked exasperated at Marko. "Are you for real?" Kevin demands. "Ja." Marko answers, beckoning them into the school back to see what looks like a giant mountain. "We are going to dig a hole down to the Mantle and erupt lava from this volcano." Marko explains.

They all get started on the volcano, using equipment present to dig deeper and deeper. Trevor nearly falls, as Charlotte catches him and pulls him back up. Trevor hugs her out of fear and love. Charlotte hugs him back and comforts him. "It's okay." Charlotte says softly. "I'm going to keep you safe."

Sabrina looks at this and taps Crith on the shoulder. "Crith, can you help dig down if your power?" Sabrina asks. Crith gets up and looks down int the hole, as lava starts rising up it. Kevin sees this and sighs in relief. "WE'RE DONE WITH THE THING, PSYCHO TEACHER!" He shrieks at Marko. "What was even the point of this?" He demands.

Marko smiles. "Now we have a volcano to study, meaning we can have first-hands experience on the subject I teach." Marko answers. Connor groans, as they begin to walk out of the volcano. Before anyone can leave however, Marshall blows his whistle. "You're all stayin' here until this marine killer blows over. NO EXCEPTIONS!" Marshall shouts. Kevin growls. "I'll have you know my father--" "SHUT UP AND GET INSIDE!" Mashall roars at them, especiallt Kevin, terrifying most of them into the school, as Khaldun just walked in, Sabrina dragging Crith inside.

It began to turn night, as everyone was getting into sleeping bags, except Trevor, who was sitting on a chair. Apparently, Coffey had begged for his stuffed unicorn to get a sleeping bag or something.

"It's fine...school's w-warm...this chair is s-soft--" Trevor starts. "Trevor?" Charlotte asks. Trevor turns around to see her looking at him sadly. "Are you okay?" Charlotte asks, as Trevor starts silently crying. "...No...I'm not..." Trevor answers, remembering that Kevin had blasted him with electricity just yesterday.

Tears form in Charlotte's eyes as she notices the burn on Trevor's arm, and hugs him tightly. "It's okay, Trevor. I'm here for you. I care about you." Charlotte says a bit shakily. "C-can you come with me?" Charlotte asks. Trevor nods. "O-of course." Trevor says, as Charlotte takes him to a balcony.

"It looks so beautiful tonight." Trevor remarks, looking at the trees swaying in the breeze. Charlotte places her hands on Trevor's cheeks. "Trevor, I..." Charlotte trails off, as she kisses Trevor.

It only lasted for a few seconds, but to Trevor it was an eternity. Charlotte finally stops and hugs Trevor. "...I love you." Charlotte finishes, smiling at Trevor with kind eyes. Trevor stares for a moment, before leaning into Charlotte. "I...I matter...?" Trevor asks. "Yes. You matter." Charlotte answers, patting him on the head softly.

Suddenly, a scream rends the air. Trevor yelps as Charlotte looks towards the school. "No..." She trails off before running to fnd it, bringing Trevor with her.

When they get there, Marko is bleeding on the ground and the other students are staring at a dark, muscular man wearing full body armor which seems to be designed to invoke fear. It was impossible to tell in this light. As Marko bled out, Charlotte runned at and kicked the man in the back of the head, sending him flying into a wall as he fired a missile at Charlotte, blasting her into another room.

"Charlotte!" Trevor shouts, running to find her, as the golden man from before, Felix, runs into to fire at the man, who fires back. "Who are you?!" Felix demands. "Chaemirah." The man answers, before throwing down a grenade and disappearing, with a missile sending Felix flying away.

"What just...?" Trevor asks. "I think it's an old enemy of mine..." Charlotte answers, sounding angry. "...REICH."

## Chapter Five

Darren was walking through a dark alleyway and talking to someone on his phone. "Yes, of course I'll let you have the world. I just need business--" A clatter is heard. "I'll have to call you back, Mr. Schnitzel." Darren says, as he hangs up and puts his phone in his pocket, before slowly turning around.

He sees a man wearing a red leather combat suit with a hood and golden smiling drama mask with a black mesh underneath obscuring the figure's true face. He had knifes strapped onto his abdomen and two swords, one longer than the other, strapped to his back, with knives strapped to his hips and a grappling hook and some grenade pack on the sashes connecting the straps on his back.

"Your associate's former underling nearly killed Trevor Dillard and his partner earlier tonight." The man says. "If he had, you would not be breathing." "And? He's not one of my damn men." Darren retorts, slightly unnerved by the figure as he jumps down to force Darren onto the ground with one hand, avoiding gunfire from Darren.

"Charlotte Nechita and those she cares about...they're mine. You or any of your associates so much as threaten them, you all die." The man says. "Who the Hell--" Darren starts, before being cut off. "Do you understand, Darren Mitchel?" The figure demands menacingly. "Yes! But who are you?!" Darren shouts.

"...Nameless." The figure answers, before Darren flips over to see no one there, panting in fear. "This city has it's own apex criminal..." Darren says shakily, as a woman with purple hair and golden glasses walks over to help him up. "Mr. Mitchel?" She asks. "Carina..." Darren says. "Have a security detail guard my son in secret." "Why, Sir?" Carina asks. "This city's much more rival-rich than I initially believed." Darren answers, not hiding his new fear.

Trevor wakes up with Charlotte sleeping next to him. He felt extremely lucky, that the girl he had fell in love with loved him back. He didn't think it would ever happen. He also thinks about Chaemirah, where he is and what he might be planning next. He had already killed two people. One more and he could be considered a serial killer.

That thought terrified Trevor. A serial killer! Right in Killeen! Perhaps luck must always be a double-edged sword. He gets to be with the love of his life, but now there is a menace threatening to kill everyone he cares about and more. Trevor felt they should rise to avenge those killed, and stop Chaemirah. But first they needed training.

How great, it was, that Rossini was thinking the same thing.

"WAKE UP!" Marshall shouts, blowing his whistle, as everyone, scared, gets up. Khaldun and Crith just get up casually. "After the sad loss of Professor Marko, as well as earlier former Navy Commander David, we've decided to partner with a military official to stop this 'Chaemirah' bastard. Come to the main room to meet him!" Marshall blows his whistle and everyone starts following him downstairs, as they saw Lawson crying into a tissue and Coffey holding a hat to his chest, looking down. Rossini sees them and smiles.

"I'm glad you could come here to honor our fallen allies." Rossini says, his voice a bit cracked. "As we all know, Chaemirah is terrorizing our city, and we need it to stop. As such, we've teamed up with Daniel Cross, Supreme Commander of the U.S. Navy SEALS."

They see a man with black hair and purple eyes, wearing a white admiral suit with a tall white collar and purple stylings all over the suit standing there and looking at them. "Hello, students of Reaper High. I would like to help make all of this right by bringing Chaemirah to justice." They look at each other, as Marshall stands beside them. "As such, we're gonna' train you to use your powers even more rigorously than before! Case in point: You will be paired up against one-another!" Marshall says, showing them a board. Trevor looks shocked as he has to fight...Kevin, who looks at Trevor and smiles. "Dad doesn't like rivals. Winner gets to take this idiot down." Kevin says.

As they walk into the gym, which had been converted into an arena, the other students get into their stalls, as Trevor and Kevin face each other from opposite sides of the room. "Go Trevor!" Charlotte shouts enthusiastically, as most of the other students root for Trevor as well. "I guess that's what you get for being a bully." Trevor says to Kevin. "I'm still pretty worthless, but I'm going to try for them." Kevin smiles. "Cheering boosts confidence, something you've always been lacking." Kevin replies. "Let's see who's got more power up their sleeves, eh?"

Kevin smiles as he rushes to punch Trevor, who throws up his arm to block before recoiling from the punch and holding his arm. "Ow..." Trevor says. "...I'm not too hurt, I can still fight." Trevor then runs to punch Kevin, as they start punching and kicking each other, seemingly getting a bit better with their styles over time. About twenty minutes into the fight, Kevin then smiles as his hands erupt with lightning, which blasts Trevor into the wall and leaves him whimpering.

"Aw, you gonna' cry?" Kevin mocks. "No one likes a bully, but no one likes a whiny baby, either." "I'm n-not whining." Trevor replies. "A-and I'm still alive." Kevin looks shocked as Trevor gets back up and runs to try to karate chop him. Kevin dodges, but is hit by what looks like a blast of energy. "Ow!" Kevin shouts, as Trevor was confused. "Huh?" Trevor says, before noticing and dodging another bolt of lightning from Kevin, who was angry. "Just let me beat you!" Kevin yells, as his whole body lights up with electricity and he runs to punch Trevor, who blocks with his arms, only feeling a bit numb, before kicking Kevin into the wall, knocking him out.

"I...I lost...?" Kevin questions, as he grits his teeth in anger. The aura surrounding Trevor disappears as he falls to the ground, panting. Charlotte runs in and hugs Trevor. "That was amazing!" Charlotte shouts happily, as the crowd was cheering and applauding Trevor. Kevin gets up and spitefully walks away.

"That is the makings of a warrior." Khaldun says. "And with his goals and personality, he can become a hero." "I guess I'll go next." Connor says, as Suddenly, Wanda starts screaming and points at a bomb, which Cross sees. "Everyone clear out, now!" Daniel says. As they all get out, the bomb goes off, and Sabrina sees Crith still sitting in his seat. "Crith." Sabrina says, a bit worried, before running in to check if he's alright. The water sprinklers were already going off. "A terrorist attack." Daniel says. "But from who?"

Khaldun then beckons Trevor, Charlotte and Connor with him. "Huh? Where are we going?" Connor asks. "We're going to find Chaemirah." Khaldun answers, as they walk out of the school.

## Chapter Six

A dark warehouse was seen in a run-down corner of the city. It was raining, with lightning flashing in the background, and night. A man was walking through the warehouse, shrouded in darkness and his own suit. The man, a flicker revealing it to be Chaemirah, walked through the warehouse, stopping at his utility table to sharpen his blades and reload his guns, when about thirty aiming lasers are pointed at him.

"Hello, Chaemirah." Darren says charismatically, walking out of the shadows with a smile, and holding a briefcase. "You are that crime lord who came to take over this city." Chaemirah says. "And it seems marry a woman you met but two days ago." "Oh, we're not that far yet." Darren replies smoothly. "I'm here to form an alliance with you." "Alliance?" Chamirah demands. "Yes. You protect me from Nameless, and in return you get to kill Charlotte and get all of this cash." He opens up the briefcase to reveal a large sum of money.

"I don't care about money, but tell me more about this revenge." Chaemirah says. Darren smiles. "Right this way, Chaemirah. I'll tell you everything." Darren says, as they all walk away.

Trevor and Charlotte were walking through a military base, chatting. "Oh, that's so funny and cute!" Charlotte says happily to Trevor. "That sounded like a great ice cream adventure." Trevor blushes. "Yeah, it w-was." Trevor actually smiles a bit nervously, but genuinely happy. His whole life had just turned around, and he was going to help save this city from Chaemirah.

"Hey, kid! Can you and your girlfriend get over here?" Daniel asks. Trevor and Charlotte blush and walk over to the hangar. "Okay, Hartmann was my best friend. I knew him for quite a while and he did much good for this country. I can still remember that time he got a pet squirrel..." *"Look, it's so helpful!" Marko says happily. The squirell had found the rope for their treehouse. "Hahaha! What a nice squirrel." Daniel replies enthusiastically.* "...such good times. I want to stop Chaemirah from hurting anyone else. Who's with me?" The students present raise their hands.

"About REICH..." Khaldun says. "We'll get to them. I just think that...Chaemirah might be one of them." Charlotte replies. "Alright. Questions later, I guess." Khaldun says. "Wait, where are they?" Connor asks, confused. "That's what we'll find out after a criminal algorithm." Khaldun says. "We just need one more comfirmed attack linked with the other two to know exactly where Chaemirah is."

"So, we wait until tonight?" Connor asks. "I guess it's now more than ever that I find out what my Mutation is." Connor goes off to train against some robot dummies.

"Wait, doesn't the sun hurt you?" Trevor asks, concerned. "It does, but I can heal from it." Charlotte answers. "It doesn't really hurt." Trevor sighs in relief before looking up and putting his hands around his mouth. "Take that, sun!" Trevor shouts at the sky, making Charlotte cover her mouth with her hand and giggle. Some of the soldiers chuckle, too.

The sun was setting when Daniel's wife, a pale woman with silver hair and purple eyes, was cleaning up a mess of toys. She then hear gunfire as she turned around and saw the bodyguards dead on the floor, as Darren, Chaemirah and a few hitmen were seen standing there. "Hello, Miss Cross." Darren says smoothly. "We need you to come with us."

"And if I refuse?" She asks. Chaemirah responds by firing at her, which she blocks with a transparent white hexagon energy shield. "A bullet-timer...okay." Darren says, as Mrs. Cross feels something in her neck and takes it out, seeing it is a tranquilizer dart. She slumps over as Darren and the other stand over her.

Daniel slams his fist against the wall hard enough to crack it. "He took my damn wife!" He shouts, before calming down a bit, but still seeming angry. "Sir, Mr. Georgas has a guess on the location of Chaemirah." A man says. "Thanks, Austin." Daniel says. "I'll give you a promotion if you help take out another serial killer after this." "Sir!" Austin says with a salute, as Daniel walks to the hangar to meet up with Khaldun, who was displaying his thoughts on a hologram.

"What do we know about Chaemirah?" Khaldun asks. "He's a guy in a scary suit?" Trevor asks. "Yes, but what else?" Khaldun responds. "The answer is that he's a Nazi." Connor answers. "WHAT?!" Trevor shouts. "It's true." Khaldun replies. "He took down the wife of Daniel, the grandson of a WWII Marine, and an ACTUAL WWII Marine, along with a scientist who betrayed Nazi Germany during WWII." "He also arrived at these locations from this direction." Connor says, pointing at the location of a warehouse. "I was actually there, so I saw him."

David nods. "Then that's where we're going." He says, as they prepare to leave for the warehouse.

As they arrive at the warehouse, it had already become night. The moon was shining bright overhead and crickets were chirping in the background. Austin, who was doing cool poses, was leading the soldiers into the warehouse, as Daniel was eager to get back at Chaemirah and didn't want any traps.

Austin seemed pretty confident as all the soldiers were on edge. "Can't you sneak around with the rest of us?" A darker-skinned, female soldier asks. "You can, Lieutenant Collins. You're in charge, after all." Collins chuckles. "Alright? Just remember we're here to take out a serial killer, alright?" "Alright." Austin answers, lowering his voice.

As they sneak through the dark mansion, they begin to feel more and more unsettled. Nothing had even happened yet. They come to a doorway and see a chair turned away from them. They walk over to the chair and Collins slams her hand on the table in front of it. "Turn around and face us." She says a bit menacingly.

Then, they hear guns cock and turn around to see men wearing masks over their faces taking aim at them. "Fire!" A bulkier man says, before both sides start firing at each other. The men in the business suits surprisingly don't go down easy. Collins takes out two pistols and starts firing at the men repeadedly, taking to down, as she gets smacked on the head by another, who Austin fires down. "Thanks, Austin. You really saved my--" She cuts herself off to fire at another soldier who was about to taze Austin. Soon, all the men were defeated, and they soldiers walked over to the chair, which slowly turned around.

There was only a bomb in it, the timer almost out. "It's a trap!" Austin shouts, as Collins grabs him and pulls him out of there with the other soldiers following them. The bomb goes off, bringing down the entire warehouse. "No!" Daniel shouts, before running into the warehouse to help any surviors out of the rubble. He finds most of the soldiers dead, with Collins shielding Austin from the debris, grunting in pain. "Let's get you out of here." Daniel says as he snaps his fingers.

Darren was walking through the harbor he had taken over. Something seemed to be being built there and he was calling someone on the phone. "You and your clan can take City Hall. I just want my skyrise." Darren says, before looking up and going silent for a second. "Gonna' have to call you back." Darren says, before hanging up and putting his phone in his pocket.

Nameless was standing atop a boat, glaring down at Darren. "Oh, it's you again!" Darren says. "You like this place?" "Consider this a warning. Charlotte and the rest now have allies, near-friends in the military, and you and your trap killed a battalion. If this same thing happens to one of Charlotte's friends, you and the rest of the Quadrilogy will perish." Nameless says, before lightning flashes and he vanishes.

"Well, that wasn't ominous at all." Darren says, before taking out his phone again, looking a bit more shaken.

Trevor, Charlotte, Khaldun and Connor were walking into the hospital to talk with Daniel, briefly seeing Austin comforting a bandaged Collins. "Hello, students." Daniel says. "I'm glad you could make it, because I need someone to talk to and the President was not available."

"What is it?" Charlotte asks. "A squad of people I liked as friends just decimated by a serial killer who faked us out." Daniel answers grimly, as Khaldun takes out a speaker device. "Maybe not entirely." Kaldun says, as they walk out of the hospital to listen in private. "If the Vampire is listening, she is to come to the lab. I have a score to settle with her." Chaemirah's voice says, before the speaker device turns off. "Hmm...the lab..." Kahldun mutters, beginning to analyze the device. "Isn't there an abandoned laboratory somewhere at the outskirts of this city?" Khaldun asks. "Yes, which means that's where we're going." Daniel replies, determined.

It was now midnight. They were all walking towards an old, dark lab made of rusted black and red metal. Everything was written in German. "'BETRETEN VERBOTEN' means 'DO NOT ENTER'." Daniel says. "Yeah, I learned the language." Charlotte kicks down the door and walks in, as the others follow.

As they walk through the lab, Charlotte suddenly sees herself in this very place, killing soldiers dressed like Nazis. "Is that blood?!" Trevor shouts, pointing at a stain of blood on the wall. Charlotte remembers a soldier being blasted in half there, the suit's explosion concealing the real gore of the scene.

It was silent except for their own footsteps. Everything felt too quiet, eerily so. Trevor started visibly shaking, as Charlotte walked by to comfort him, still remembering attacking the lab, including a larger soldier with more advanced armor.

The lights flickered a few times, as Khaldun scanned the area. Soon, they made their way over two a cross-section. "I'll take left, you take right." Daniel says, as he walks down the left corridor and the other four take the right corridor.

Daniel sees an open door and walks over to investigate. He sees a dimly lit room covered in all sorts of oddities. A desk drawer was open, a file on top of said desk. Daniel walks closer to it and sees it is marked as 'CLASSIFIED'. "Hmm...I guess I'll keep this for further inspection." Daniel says. The lights flicker and something resembling a silhouette of Chaemirah is visible behind Daniel.

Trevor, Charlotte, Khaldun and Connor are walking through the dark corridors, which looked more maintained than the other areas they visited. As they walk across the dark tunnel, they come across a door. Khaldun goes to open it. "Stop." Trevor whipsers timidly. "Don't you know what happens to characters in horror movies if they open doors in scary places?" Khaldun groans in annoyance and starts to crack the code, opening the door and allowing them to walk in.

It was a dark, cubical and nearly empty room. The only things in it were a deep bloodred ceiling light illuminating Mrs. Cross, who was looking at them while surrounded by guards she supposedly had taken while bonded. Khaldun walks over to untie her, as Connor yelps and jumps back. They all turn to see a dark silhouette standing at the entrance. As the figure walks in, the light reveals it to be Chaemirah.

"What?!" Trevor screams, stepping backwards to the wall. Khaldun frowns at Chaemirah. "You're the serial killer with a Nazi mentality, correct?" Khaldun demands, at alert. "Ja." Chaemirah answers. "But it is her I am here for. She threw me into molten metal to escape, fused me with my armor." Chaemirah points his forearm-mounted bazooka at Charlotte. "I will never forgive her for that, and I will honor Fuhrer Hitler while taking my revenge."

Chaemirah fires a rocket at Charlotte, who catches it--being slammed into the wall in the process--and throws it up to the lights. When the rocket explodes, it makes the lights flicker like crazy, as Khaldun and Chaemirah start firing at each other in the dark. Eventually, clashing metal is heard, as Khaldun was blocking with his arm from two wrist-mounted daggers Chaemirah appeared to have, which were tinted greyish red with dry blood.

Trevor, with quick thinking, gets a rifle from one of the corpses and starts firing at Chaemirah. Though it didn't seem to do damage, it did distract him long enough for Khaldun to punch Chaemirah in the face, knocking him away. "Agh! You are annoying insects meant to serve under me!" Chaemirah roars, before running to slash at Trevor, only for Charlotte to catch his hand and slowly twist it. As she throws Chaemirah aside, he slashes her across the arm, causing Charlotte to let go of him and hold her arm in pain for a second. "What more can you do?" Chaemirah demands, as he goes in to slash Khaldun.

He had been blocked by two tendrils which looked to be made from hardened fabric. In fact, they were Connor's gloves. "What?! A JEW?!" Chaemirah screams. "I hate Nazis." Connor says in a slightly distorted voice with his eyes glowing blue. "Especially a Nazi who is also a serial killer." Connor slashes Chaemirah across the chest, sending Chaemirah reeling back as he fires a missile at Connor, blasting him into the wall. "No! I cannot lose to a vampire! A Jew! An alien! I am a son of the Fatherland!" Chaemirah roars, before throwing grenades at everyone and exploding them, creating a massive of smoke that became confusing.

Trevor looked up to see Chaemirah standing over him, pointing his gun at him. "Your father came with us so you could be born, yet now we must inform him of your death." Chaemirah says. Trevor, terrified, pulls the trigger right when Chaemirah does.

Trevor was screaming in pain as a bullet had broken through the skin of his cheek, albeit grazed it. But Trevor's screams were nothing compared to Chaemirah's, Chaemirah having been shot in the eye. "NEIN!" Chaemirah screeches, before grabbing Trevor and throwing him into Charlotte. Khaldun runs to punch Chaemirah, who kicks him into Connor. Chaemirah then grabs them both and throws them into the wall before pointing his bazooka at them again.

"You did quite well." Chaemirah says to them. "But you cannot stop a REICH Soldier."

Right before Chaemirah can fire, a blast of purple fire engulfs him, followed by another, and another. After what seems like a hundred blasts of fire, Chaemirah is seen with destroyed armor and singed skin. He was indeed fused to his suit, as he turned his head around to glare at Daniel, who was giving him a glare of pure menace. "Your Jason Vorhees act ends here, Chaemirah." Daniel says, as he calmly snaps his fingers, causing another pillar of purple fire to erupt from under the serial killer. "You chose death the moment you threatened my wife." Daniel finishes, ceasing the snapping as he then walks past the most definitely dead Chaemirah to help up Mrs. Cross.

"Daniel..." She says, hugging David tightly. "It's okay, now. Did they hurt you, Aayuk?" Daniel asks, his voice cracking. "I'm okay. Chaemirah just needed bait." Aayuk answers, kissing David as another party of soldiers walked in. "We didn't find anyone else on the premise, Sir." The soldier says. "Good. We have to get out of here, and patch you four up." Daniel says, as he and Aayuk are the first two to walk out.

Darren was walking across the sidewalk of the same part of town Trevor's house was in when he felt something off and turned around to see Nameless standing at the beginning of a crosswalk.

"You once again put Charlotte and her friends in danger." Nameless says. "That was Chaemirah's idea, and he was already punished." Darren retorts. "You have six chances left, Darren Mitchel, and that goes for your son as well. Actions have consequences, it is something I learned when I was seven years old." Nameless says back. "Do not waste your remaining lives." The lights flicker and Nameless is gone. This time Darren is visibly scared. He decides to shake it off when he reaches Trevor's house, and rings the doorbell.

"Coming!" Vanessa shouts, sounding a bit rushed. "I could have sworn those groceries were supposed to show up tom--" Vanessa had opened the door and saw Darren, blushing a bit. "Oh, Darren. This is a nice surprise." Vanessa says. "Indeed it is, milady." Darren replies, as he gives a rose to Vanessa. "Oh..." "I know a high-quality restaurant we can get dinner at." Darren says. "I would like to further our relationship." "That sounds nice. Good thing I got my shoes on." Vanessa says a bit jokingly. "I know where to start." Darren says, kissing Vanessa.

But he couldn't shake off the fear...the anxiety...

## Chapter Seven

A man wearing a black and red bulky military suit, with weapons strapped to the chest, arms, legs and back, wearing a helmet with red ear-flaps and a black visor, walked through a dull metal corridor lit by bright orange lights. He comes to a door and opens it by pressing the right code on the electronic lock, and sees a man wearing a black cloak sitting in a chair, facing a red-orange screen and not facing him.

"Welcome, Blitzkrieg." A slightly raspy, deep male voice says, greeting Blitzkrieg into the room. "Guten Morgen, Mein Fuhrer." Blitzkrieg replies, bowing down. "I thank you eternally for your loyalty. I think we need a bit of a test run. Lure them here for me." The man in the chair says. "It will be done, Mein Fuhrer." Blitzkrieg says, saluting.

Trevor had come home to find himself alone, as Charlotte, Khaldun and Connor came in with him. "Where's my mom?" Trevor asks, confused. "I guess she went out with someone?" Connor answers. "She seems to like that Darren guy." Khaldun seems to tense up a bit, as Charlotte looks over to see a photo of Trevor and Vanessa. There was no father present. "Where's your father?" Charlotte asks, sounding concerned.

"I don't know." Trevor answers, sounding sad. "I never met him." Trevor starts to cry, as Charlotte walks over him to hug him and pat his head. "It's okay, Trevor. I'll still be here with you. We'll...we'll find your father together." Charlotte says softly. "You're so nice...and caring..." Trevor says a bit shakily. "...how did I become this lucky...?" "I think I can help you be happy, and you see like a sweet boy." Charlotte answers, smiling at him.

Khaldun puts a board on the wall and begins to put pictures and rope on it, as he markers connections between them. "REICH...a science-military organization consisting of Nazi supporters who use terrorism tactics to try and conquer the country..." Khaldun mutters, as Connor tests out his new powers on fruit.

"It looks like I can...I just need a new suit." Connor says, which Khaldun hears. "Maybe go ask Rosette. She seems to know how to design clothes." Khaldun replies. Connor nods and walks out to find Rosette.

Rosette was humming something and weaving a scarf for a little girl who had asked for one. She had just finished when Connor walked into her little saloon. "So this is your part-time job?" Connor asked politely. "I'm not much of a fighter, and my Mutation just seems more helpful here." Rosette answers. "Hi, Connor. What can I do for you?" She asks, as Connor lays a sketch down. "Can you help design this?" Connor asks. "I'll see what I can do." Rosette answers. "How about you stay here to help point out any errors, 'kay?" She asks. "Uh, okay." Connor answers, walking with her to make the suit.

Trevor had taken Charlotte over to a park he would go to often. She smiled at the quite large playground. "You got to come here every day?" Charlotte asks, seeming a bit surprised. "Not every day, more like every Sunday." Trevor answers shyly, as Charlotte turns to hug him. "Can't you see, Trevor? We're all helping to make you happy. No one deserves to be miserable." Charlotte says happily. Trevor blushes and smiles, hugging Charlotte back.

A few moments passed, until Charlotte heard something off. "Huh?" Charlotte exclaims, as she pushes Trevor to the ground to evade a missile, which hits and destroys a tree behind the park. "WHAT?!" Trevor shouts, as Charlotte gets back up to punch Blitzkrieg, who blocks with his plated forearm and punches her back, before taking out a pistol and firing at her. Charlotte ducks and runs to kick Blitzkrieg in the chest, as the latter recoils and fires some more. Charlotte continues to dodge the bullets but is hit by one, which grazes her forearm. "Ugh!" Charlotte growls as she punches Blitzkrieg in the visor, cracking it. Blitzkrieg uses this to throw her to the ground. "Enough." He says, before taking aim once more.

"Stop!" A voice says from behind them. Blitzkrieg turns around to see Felix standing there, holding an Egyptian sword at him. Blitzkrieg sighs and draws a red plasma chainsaw, before igniting it and running to slash at Felix, who blocks the attack with his sword before slashing back. Blitzkrieg continues to block as he fires at Felix, who takes out his own gun to fire at the same time, blasting them both back. Felix then teleports in front of Blitzkrieg to punch him through a play palace. "No!" Trevor shouts, as he grabs a rock and throws it at Blitzkrieg, breaking his visor and revealing two glowing yellow irises. Blitzkrieg is distracted, and kicked to the ground by Felix.

"Now," Felix says, standing over Blitzkrieg. "tell us who you are and what you're doing here." "Ich bin Blitzkrieg. I am here on behalf of Fuhrer Reinhardt of REICH, to capture you." Blitzkrieg says, before taking out a flash grenade and detonating it, disappearing along with Felix. "Oh, no..." Charlotte moans, sounding worried. Connor, in his new suit, had just arrived. "You have no idea how long it took to make--" Connor starts, before seeing their expressions. "What?" "REICH has a superhero." Trevor says. "We have to rescue him." Connor and Charlotte nod, as the three of them head back to Trevor's home to rest for the coming night.

As they got home, Vanessa, wearing what looked like an expensive dress, walked in. "Oh dear." Vanessa says, seeing them. "I can tell from those faces that you're up to something." "We're off to fight Nazi terrorists." Trevor answers, as Connor starts to take apart Khaldun's notes. Trevor, exhausted, walks up to his room to get in his bed. Charlotte lies down next to him, and kisses him goodnight, silently cursing REICH in her head.

Felix' eyes open up to see a dimly lit room made of cave stone and dull steel. Atop a balcony-esk structure with a control panel and screen, stood the hooded man, and two Nazi-esk soldiers standing on either side of him. "Welcome to my base, Felix." The man says. "We are REICH...and I...am Reinhardt." Reinhardt said this as his glowing eye dilated with a mechanical sound.

## Chapter Eight

Trevor, Charlotte, Connor and Vanessa had arrived at the police station. Daniel was standing there, waiting for them. "Hello, kids." Daniel says. "I don't see Khaldun with you." "We haven't seen him since Felix disappeared." Connor says. "He was taken by a man named Blitzkrieg, working for REICH, probably." "Oh dear..." Daniel replies, before walking over to take a look at the police notes. "Hmm...Area 51 has been a bit suspicious. I've heard of an 'Underworld' of sorts going on down there. It could be REICH."

"And how are we supposed to get down there?" Connor asks. "It's Area 51." "I can get you in, especially if we present this evidence." Daniel answers, before taking them over to a military van. "We'll get there from here. It would take a bit longer if I didn't fuel this thing with Nitro." "...WHAT?!" Trevor shouts, before Daniel beckons them in. "Strap in. I'm not taking the normal road." Daniel says, as he stomps on the pedal and make the van start driving at a ridiculous speed.

It was night when they arrived at a gate. There was a soldier standing there as Daniel got out to greet him. "Our drones picked you up when you drove by." The soldier says. "If we'd known it was you we'd have greeted you sooner." "Alright, Steve. I just need clearance for me and these kids to find their friend. We think he might be trapped here." Daniel replies. "Hmm...alright, but you're not straying away. I'll be accompanying you, showing you the way" Steve answers, as he guides them to the primary building and escorts them inside.

"Nice tech." Daniel says. "You make it all yourself?" "Yes...why?" Steve answers, as he creates authentication cards for them and has them scanned. "Do not lose these." Steve says strictly, as he takes them down to the lower levels, pressing buttons to supposedly shut metal doors down for the rooms. He leads them to another, run-down metal door at the end of the hall. "This has been out-of-order for a long time. I'll let you in, and I'm telling you right now, *there are no aliens in here*." Steve says, as he unlocks the door to reveal a dimly lit dull metal corridor. The four of them walk inside, as Steve closes the door behind them.

They walk through the creepy corridor for a while, as they suddenly run into two Nazi-esk men standing there, who spot them. "Hey! Where do you think you are heading?" One of them shouts, as Daniel snaps his fingers to burn them both alive. "Did you have to do that?" Trevor asks. "They're Nazis." Daniel answers. "Good point." Trevor replies, as they continue walking.

When they make it to a room with a slightly cracked door, they walk inside, and see someone chained to the wall in the back of the room. They run over to see who it is, a man with blonde hair, who opened brown eyes to look at them, seeing Trevor. "Why did you come here...? It's not safe..." He says deliriously, as Charlotte breaks the chains off. "We're here to rescue a superhero named Felix." She answers. "You mean the alien named Khaldun?" The man asks in response. "Alien...?" Connor trails off, as they hear clapping behind them.

They turn around to see a man with near-platinum blonde hair, bright skin, and bright blue eyes standing there. He was wearing a black and red business suit, with a Nazi symbol strapped to his left sleeve. "I commend you for finding Mr. Dillard." The man says. "After all, he was taken here in return for the medicine that made little Trevor over there able to live with his mother. I call myself Vigil, by the way." He says, smiling.

"...What?" Trevor exclaims, shocked. "This is my dad? And you've been torturing him?!" "Well, we did promise him a position in this organization if we gave your mother a medicine to help her live through labor." Vigil answers smugly. "Now, how about we take you to our leader." Another man was beside Vigil, with black and white hair, with red eyes, wearing a trenchcoat-esk suit with the same symbol.

"And who are you?" Daniel demands. "Hmph...my name is Tobias...you will not have any more information..." "Okay?" Daniel replies, before placing his hand out. "Either way, I need to get you out of the way to keep searching for your leader." Daniel says, as Vigil grabs it with such force that it feels like it is being crushed. "We'll take you to Herr Reinhardt." Vigil replies smoothly.

As they enter the dark room Khaldun is being held in, they see him strapped to train tracks, with drills and the like positioned over him. Reinhardt was looking down before turning his head to see them. "Greetings, Students of Killeen's Reaper High. Ich bin Reinhardt." Reinhardt says to them, as Tobias, Blitzkrieg and Vigil surround him. "As you can see, your friend is proving valuable to us. So we will...be needing you out of the picture."

Tobias forms a sword from the railing, Blitzkrieg draws a chainsaw sword and pistol, and Vigil's body is covered in a black metallic substance, his eyes bug-like and red, his hands like scythes. They all run to slash at them, as Daniel blasts at Reinhardt, who flips back and rushes in with his own sword. Charlotte blocks and slashes Vigil, who attempts to overwhelm her. Connor uses his rag suit to block from Tobias, as Trevor grabs a gun and starts firing at Blitzkrieg.

Blitzkrieg isn't able to block many of the gunshots with his sword, and relies on his swiftly breaking suit, mainly the visor. Trevor continues firing, as Charlotte kicks Vigil into--almost through--a wall. Vigil chuckles and runs to slash red blasts of energy from his claws at Charlotte, who blocks with the sword given to her before running to slash Vigil in the chest, hearing something get cut. Connor is appalled as he sees the wall turn into a needle storm and fly at him. He quickly slashes and blocks the needles, before running to kick and slash Tobias, who blocks with a shield he had just formed.

Daniel had drawn a rapier, and had set it on fire. He was slashing at Reinhardt, who was blocking with both his sword and right arm, before kicking Daniel with his left leg, making him feel as though he had just been kicked by a construction crane. "Ugh! You're a--" Daniel starts, before being cut off. "A cyborg, yes." Reinhardt finishes, before putting his sword away, aiming his hand at Daniel and firing a red blast from it. Daniel is sent crashing into the wall, which explodes, sending him into another part of the secret base.

Tobias kicks Connor into a dark room lit by blue lighting. The door shuts behind them and the room begins to  become rapidly colder. "What?!" Connor shouts, before hearing the metal in the wall groan. Connor is suddenly slashed by thousands of metal needles, as he feels his blood change direction. "Agh! What is going on?!" Connor yells. "My Mutation is that I can control metal, including the iron in your blood, without the use of magnetism." Tobias answers, before Connor growls and slashes outwards, destroying the needles and throwing Tobias through the door and back into the corridor, Tobias, growling, starts to bend the light around him. Connor looks up, and sees Tobias gone. He struggles upright and chuckles a bit. "Got him." Connor says, before running to help Daniel against Reinhardt.

Vigil, now surrounded by a glowing red aura, with his eyes glowing and his clothes near-destroyed, runs to slash at Charlotte again, cutting her shoulder. "Agh!" Charlotte shouts, before kicking Vigil back and running to slash him across the stomach, drawing blood as well. "What?! I cannot be hurt!" Vigil shouts, before he fires blasts of red energy from his scythes. Charlotte dodges and drives her sword through Vigil's heart. "No...Herr Reinhardt...I live...to...ser-serve..." Vigil says, as he stops glowing and slumps to the ground, dead.

Trevor keeps dodging the sword slashes and bullets, feeling the heat around him and the pain as a bullet cuts into his cheek and through it. "OW!" Trevor screams, quickly calming himself down, stepping back and looking for a weakness. "His helmet's cracked..." Trevor whispers to himself, as he dodges another slash from Blitzkrieg which cuts his knee. "Guh!" Trevor shouts, getting used to the pain by now. He then points his gun at the largest crack in the visor and waits a few seconds. Blitzkrieg slashes at the gun right when Trevor fires. Trevor feels something hot and sharp pierce his chest and looks down to see the sword half an inch deep in his chest. He is in too much pain to scream, and grits his teeth at Blitzkrieg, who had stopped moving. "What did you do?!" Blitzkrieg demands. Trevor doesn't answer, but Charlotte puts her sword to his neck.

"You can heal fast, so he broke your brain stem." Charlotte answers coldly, before slashing her sword with some effort to decapitate Blitzkrieg. She crouches down to help Trevor up, as Connor is thrown out of the room by Reinhardt, who was now in a swordfight with Khaldun, who was wearing most of his Felix armor. "Khaldun?" Charlotte questions. Khaldun then blasts Reinhardt in the face, Reinhardt steps back and blasts Khaldun, who blasts back. Reinhardt's eye dilates and he begins to walk away. The gang then take down the soldiers sent to occupy them, as Daniel sees Trevor's condition. "We'll have to get him to a hospital, now!" Daniel shouts, as they take their leave.

They managed to defeat you, Herr Reinhardt?" Tobias asks. "Yes, but I have a much bigger game planned. We are to initiate Omega Cancer Protocol 342.153, evacuate and take all our resources with us." Reinhardt answers. "Sir!" The soldiers say in unison, saluting in unison as well. They board a helicopter loaded with their supplies, and leave.

## Chapter Nine

It was dark at night, the sun would not be up for hours. The sky above blotted out the stars and moon, making the whole thing seem eerie. Earlier that day, people had been rioting, trying to get answers about the battle that took place at Area 51. No one had answered these people, and they were forced back home before they hurt themselves. No one should be out tonight, yet there was one.

A red-haired woman, a bit curvy, walked across the sidewalk to her house. She had forgot to pay the electricity bill, and had to unlock her door manually. She, consequentially, did not notice a man with sheet-white skin, pointed ears and bright orange hair standing behind her, wearing a red trenchcoat with a golden collar and buttons. He had darker red dress pants and golden dress shoes, as well as golden gauntlets on his forearms which left his hands completely exposed. He was wearing a golden necklace with the emblem of a tiger imprinted on it. The man clears his throat, prompting the woman to look in his direction, and immediately start blushing.

"O-Oh...I didn't know anyone else was...out tonight." The woman stutters, turning redder and redder. The man smiles, baring his fangs, and lifts his head up to open his glowing red reptilian eyes. "Caitlyn Carrillo, right?" The man asks. "Y-yes." The woman, Caitlyn answers. "I think I'll just call you 'Carrie' for now." The man replies, flashing a grin which made Caitlyn nearly faint. The man catches her and opens the door to her house. "My name is Pyro Scarlet, and I would so like to get to know you better." The man, Pyro, says to Caitlyn, who blushed further as she removes her raincoat, revealing a tank top underneath. "Ah, I think we can change your style a bit." Pyro says. "But for now, It'll do." Pyro then swiftly shuts the door, his eye on the road to watch for something, possibly government. A bolt of lightning crashes in the distance, as a sudden scream quickly emanates from the house, before dying down.

Charlotte was tending to a burn-wound Trevor had taken in his fight against Blitzkrieg. Trevor whimpered every time Charlotte put the cloth on the wound, but tried to be strong. Khaldun was already devising where Reinhardt and Tobias had gone when they and their troops fled Area 51, Connor helping him do so by dragging notes across the board. "Are you okay?" Charlotte asks Trevor, now bandaging him. "Ow...yeah, I...I'm okay." Trevor replies beginning to lean into Charlotte, who smiles softly. "I think they could have gone here." Connor says. "Heh...yeah, they might have." Khaldun replies, checking out the old warehouse they visited during Chaemirah's spree.

"Hey, Trevor! I'm home!" Vanessa calls, walking through the doorway and looking exhausted. "I had...no idea there was so much to fill in when your son and his school friends chase down a band of Nazis." Vanessa says, half-jokingly, half-serious. Trevor bows his head down. "I'm sorry." Trevor says timidly. "Oh, it's okay." Vanessa replies. "I know you were just trying to help." The school bus began to draw near, as the others looked on. "They're resuming the program?" Vanessa questions. "Looks like you can go back to School, then." She then answers herself. "Yay..." Trevor says only half-enthusiastically.

As they got on the bus, Sabrina happily greets Trevor, wearing a suit she supposedly made for herself. "It's the first day back to School!" Sabrina says enthusiastically, smiling widely. "Yes, we already knew that." Khaldun replies, a bit bored. They get on their seats as the bus starts to move.

When they got back to Reaper High, it was Coffey that greeted them first. "Oh, welcome back, Class. Welcome back to our proud and humble school." Coffey says, fidgeting with his rubix cube behind his back. They began to walk with Coffey into the school, feeling safe around the lighthearted teacher. They reached the main lobby when Rossini walked up to his position with a rather grim face. "Welcome back, my students." Rossini says a bit sadly. "I apologize for my more saddened demeanor, but my cousin...is currently in the hospital from an affair with a vampire criminal named 'Pyro Scarlet'." Most of the students gasp, as Kevin growls. "Not another damn rival for my dad, he has enough on his plate already." Kevin grumbles, earning confused and suspicious looks from some of the other students. Then, Kevin's eyes widen. "'Vampire'?" Kevin demands, sounding a bit shocked. "Yes, and a terrorist at that." Rossini answers. "I've heard stories of him causing chaos and mayhem for idiotic, childish reasons."

Everyone looks uncomfortable, as Rossini directs them to their classes. It took the whole day, and everyone was on edge, learning more serious lessons from all the teachers, including the now-stuttering Coffey. After a long day, everyone got on the bus, as Khaldun beckoned Trevor and the others to follow him.

"Where are we going" Connor asks about thirty minutes into their walk. "You'll see." Khaldun answers, as they near a large empty space in a forest. "Okay?" Connor says. "What are we doing here.?" Khaldun then places his finger on his earpiece and supposedly gave a command, as the 'empty' space began to warp until a golden UFO was seen to be resting there. "Woah!" Trevor shouts, leaping back as Charlotte catches him. "...what?" Connor asks. "If it was not perfectly clear long before," Khaldun answers. " I am an alien, specifically a Lanrete, and a member of Star-C, a spacefaring organization who exist to protect the universe." The other three were silent for a bit, before the UFO opened a hatch and another alien wearing similar golden armor to Khaldun walks out of it.

"Agent Felix." The alien says. "I see you have brought your classmates here?" "They're helping to protect this planet." Khaldun answers. "And they're my friends." "Friends?" Connor says absentmindedly, as the other alien looks at them all. "Greetings, Vampire and Humans. My name is Chahraell, I am a high-ranking officer of Star-C, and this is my ship, Seraphim." The alien, Chahraell, says. They begin to walk inside the ship, as it flies into the sky why once again turning invisible.

"So this is an ACTUAL alien spaceship?" Connor asks. "Take me to your leader." Trevor says, preforming the robot dance. Chahraell sighs at this while Charlotte giggles. Khaldun begins to search the databanks for something. "Ah...I found it...the 'Sabertooth Clan'." Khaldun says. "A group of vampire extremists who want to destroy humanity...Pyro Scarlet is one of their higher-ranking members." 'What?" Connor demands, as Charlotte steps back and holds her arm, looking sad. "Of course..." Charlotte trails off.

Caitlyn was resting in the hospital, currently connected to life support, when a redheaded doctor with googles on walked in with a syringe. He then injects Caitlyn with it, making her scream. He then walks away as other doctors rush into the room to help her, but she flatlines, turning sheet-white.

The mayor was sitting in his room in Town Hall, part of which he had converted into his own home, when he got a call from someone and picked up his phone. "I'm ready to see you, sweetie." Caitlyn's voice said. Heavily armed bodyguards were stationed outside, and started getting taken down by people with the same sheet-white skin, wearing black cloaks to obscure themselves from view. Caitlyn, wearing something akin to a seductress dress, walked into Town Hall to open the door. The blushing mayor opened it to see his fiance smiling at him, as she placed a hand around his chin and leaned her head against his neck. "...I love you, Norman..." Caitlyn said, before biting Norman on the neck and beginning to drain his blood. Another vampire woman, with orange hair, wearing clothes for a higher status, walked into Town Hall and sat at the main desk. "This is our city, now..." The woman says, as Nameless watches the whole thing happen from inside a building. "My heart has beated one hundred and twenty times...the city...I now know everything about it...these Clansmen and Clanswomen...they will face Charlotte and her friends...and die." Nameless says to himself, sharpening his weaponry the whole time.

Trevor was messing with the ship's controls, causing all sorts of things to happen. Chahraell groaned and was about to slap Trevor when the screen flashed up with Channel 13.

"Breaking News! We have live footage of a situation occurring at Town Hall! Stay tuned and keep watching Channel 13!"

"She's shouting, now?" Connor demands, holding in a laugh. The UFO then flies to the Town Hall to drop Trevor, Charlotte Khaldun and Connor onto a safe part of the roof. Khaldun begins to make hand motions to try and show sign language. Trevor shrugs and Khaldun facepalms, before pointing. He points to Connor and then to the vampire guards, of which there seemed to be fifty. He then pointed at Trevor and Charlotte, before pointing to himself, and finishing by pointing at the main room. Everyone nodded.

The fifty vampire guards were playing some game to decide who got to eat the bodyguard they chained up first when Connor, dressed in his suit of black rags, belts and bandages, landed in front of them and sprouted cloth tendrils out of his back, forming his gloves into scythes and lifting his head up to glare at the vampires with glowing blue eyes. "Let's dance." Connor says in a distorted voice, like many voices speaking at once.

Trevor, Charlotte and Khaldun are sneaking through the dark hallways, fighting against vampire guards as they do so, in a manner as to not sound any alarms, as Khaldun had devised earlier. They began to walk more slowly, as they neared two rather large doors and opened them, seeing Norman dying in Caitlyn's arms as the other woman turned to smile at Charlotte.

"Ah, our wonderful queen, herself." The woman says. "Queen...?" Trevor asks, as Charlotte glares at the woman. "Allow me to introduce myself as Valerie Cleveland, the head of the Sabertooth Clan." Valerie then draws an old-looking sword and looks at Charlotte. "Defeat me, and you may have this sword instead of the pitiful training tool you currently use." Valerie says, as Charlotte, frowning, draws her own sword and runs to slash Valerie, who blocks before slashing at Charlotte, cutting her across the cheek. "Ugh!" Charlotte growls before kicking Valerie in the stomach to knock her back and leaping to punch her. Valerie blocks with her hand before slashing at Charlotte, who blocks with her suddenly-cracked sword before throwing Valerie through a wall and running after her.

Connor had taken down most of the vampires already, with their bleeding and mangled remains resting on the ground. Connor the breaks the neck of one he was strangling in the air as he heard clapping and turned to see a vampire with black hair and a yellow eye with an eyepiece fitted over it, and a line running down from the yellow eye. The vampire wore a black and red labcoat-sort of thing, and was smiling with one hand on his face. "Hello, Soul User. My name is Shiraki Zeshin, the Sabertooth Clan's head scientist." The vampire, Shiraki, says. Connor's eyelids droop as he runs to slash at Shiraki, who blocks the blade with a finger before firing a red and yellow spiral laser to blast Connor back.

Charlotte and Valerie were still slashing at, punching and kicking each other around Town Hall, tearing it apart as they did so. Charlotte narrowly avoids a quickdraw from Valerie, before attempting to kick Valerie, who leaps back to stand on top of a generator and rip a tube off, throwing it at Charlotte to electrocute her. Charlotte grunts in pain and looks at her already-healing burn, before running to slash Valerie, who jumps to dodge and then dropkicks Charlotte to the ground.

Connor sends a rag sword at Shiraki, who closes his eyes and sidesteps out of the way almost instantly. "You seem stronger than the other vampires." Connor says. "Why, thank you!" Shiraki replies before drawing a katana and running to slash at Connor, who blocks with his now-shieldlike forearm before using his now-swordlike fist to try and slash Shiraki, the blade clinking off of his skin like some sort of armor. Shiraki smiles and slaps Connor back before sending a blast of red and yellow spiral energy at him, forcing Connor to block and get blasted into the building.

Charlotte is still on the ground, panting a bit. Valerie walks over to her to slash her head off, when Charlotte's sword begins to glow, "Wha--" Valerie manages to exclaim, as Charlotte slashes at Valerie with the glowing sword with all her might, breaking the sword in half and blasting Valerie into a power line with a wave of red energy. "What the...is that Eletero?" Charlotte questions, as Valerie slowly gets up with an angry yet nearly satisfied expression. "The queen has learned how to use Viațătranșă...how wonderful for our kind." Valerie remarks, as she gets ready to slash Charlotte again.

Connor slowly gets back up and groans, glaring at Shiraki, who is smiling at him as he charges up another red blast of energy in his hand. "This is an attack vampires can use, Fazaviață. We compress Eletero into a beam of plasma, which burns and destroys anything it touches." Shiraki explains. "Furthermore, the ball version is Balulvieții." Shiraki then fires the blast at Connor, but Khaldun teleports in front of him and creates a purple hexagon forcefield to block. "Ugh! Get out of here! Help Charlotte!" Khaldun shouts. "No! I'm staying to help you!" Connor retorts, shaping his tendrils and hands into blades. Shiraki smiles at this.

Charlotte and Valerie continue to fight, now leaping over Town Hall and nearly crashing into Channel 13's helicopter, as the news reporter shouted in shock, interrupting her broadcast. "I can't believe that the students of Reaper High are taking on one of the most dangerous terrorist organizations in the world!" The news lady shouts dramatically. Trevor creates a small disc in his hand and looks up at Valerie, clashing with Charlotte as the sword was nowhere to be seen. "Here I go..." Trevor says, before throwing the disc at Valerie, which cuts her across the back. "Ugh!" Valerie growls, giving Charlotte the distraction she needed to karate chop Valerie's neck, knocking her out.

Khaldun and Connor were slashing at Shiraki, who was expertly blocking with his sword in a casual manner, while smiling smugly. "That cannot be the best you can do." Shiraki mocks, as Khaldun fires a blast at him from his gun. Shiraki holds up his hand to block, shocking them. "I can block any attack with my Scutulviață." Shiraki explains. Connor slashes at Shiraki, who blitzes behind Khaldun to slash him, Khaldun teleporting next to Connor to evade. "And furthermore I can easily get around with Vitezaviață." Shiraki finishes, as Khaldun frowns and runs to punch Shiraki, who catches the fist. "That will not work on me, officer." Shiraki says, dodging slashes from Connor, who was behind him.

Suddenly, Trevor created another disc to clash at Shiraki's sword with, something Shiraki blocked, but was then kicked in the face by Charlotte, sending him crashing into a flagpole. "Agh! No!" Shiraki shouts, as Khaldun places two fingers on the vampire's forehead. "Sleep." Khakdun says, as Shiraki's head flops over, unconscious.

Khaldun then cuffed the still-living vampires as the poilice began to arrive. Khaldun quickly teleported them back to the Seraphim, as Chahraell greeted them. "Welcome back, students of Reaper High." Chahraell said. "You seem to be back safely." "We nearly died to two of the vampires." Khaldun replied. "We barely managed to defeat them in the end." Connor continues, as they begin to tell the story of what happened.

As they finish and Chahraell takes notes, they land at Trevor's home. Khaldun and Connor stay aboard the ship as it leaves, waving at them. Trevor and Charlotte get inside as Vanessa sees them. "Oh my, what have you been doing to get all dirty and hurt like this?" Vanessa asks, before cleaning them up and serving them dinner (Chicken). As they headed off to bed, Charlotte placed a hand on Trevor's. "I...I should have told you earlier." Charlotte says. "I think it's a little awesome." Trevor replies. "Just...maybe command them to stop, next time?" Trevor asks, making Charlotte giggle as she places her forehead against his. "I love you...I want you to know that...you helped us win...and you help me smile...I want to do the same to you...to help you smile..." Charlotte whispers, Trevor smiling at this. "I love you too." He replies, as they began to fall asleep.

It was dark in the relatively futuristic looking cell block the Sabertooth Clan's remaining members were locked in. Most of the prisoners were screaming in rage, smashing against their cells with brute force. Shiraki was trying to keep himself clean as Valerie simply sat with her head down, quietly growling.

Suddenly, the dim lights flickered, and Nameless was standing in front of Valerie's cell, making everyone go quiet, along with the eerie silence of prison. "You are that masked man who operates in this town." Valerie says. "Nameless, correct?" Nameless nods at this. "What are you here for?" Valerie asks, standing up and glaring at Nameless, who slashes his sword. Suddenly, all their cells were shattered and sliced to ribbons, with deep slash marks in the walls and the electronics destroyed. "...You are going to follow my instructions for now." Nameless says. "We, together, will take our revenge on Charlotte Nechita...my way." He places his gold and silver katana, which appeared to be a Nodachi, against her throat. "Or you will all die." A few moments passed, before Valerie nods. "This seems mutually beneficial. We agree to aid you, human." Valerie finally replies, as they begin to walk out of the prison, freeing any prisoner who will listen.

## Chapter Ten

It was raining heavily. The stars and moon were blotted out as thunder was rumbling, and lightning flashed through the clouds. Pyro Scarlet was skipping around an older part of town, humming something. He hears guns cock and turns to see Darren and about thirty men wearing light armor and holding rifles.

"Hello, Darren Mitchel." Pyro says. "I see you brought friends." Darren grins and walks closer to Pyro. "I heard you were present in this town." Darren replies. "As your friends ravaged Town Hall and killed the mayor." Pyro chuckles. "They're already holding the emergency election. We'll have our results in a few days. "Yes, and I'm going to win." Darren says. "I am going to become Mayor of Killeen." "Oh? That's a new one." Pyro replies. "Have you forgotten about that man in the drama mask?" Darren tenses up a bit. "No, I have not, Pyro Scarlet." Darren answers. "However, would you be willing to join the Quadrilogy?" Pyro smiles. "Just gimme' the pay and yeah." Pyro answers cockily.

Trevor, Charlotte, Khaldun and Connor were at the KPD Headquarters, a large dark oak building with yellow lights. There were police staff present almost everywhere in the building, especially today.

"Ugh! The mayor is dead and the only two candidates are this guy called Miller and the crime lord Darren Mitchel!" The head of police, his badge saying he is 'Carl', shouts. "Calm down, calm down." Franklin, having walked in, says. "It all depends on votes, and they don't pass until tomorrow. We have plenty of time." "A DAY! A single DAY!" Carl screams, Franklin looking a bit bored. "We can take them down, we have them to help us." Franklin gestures towards Trevor, Charlotte, Khaldun and Connor. "Uh..." Trevor trails off, as Daniel walks in, smiling confidently. "Well, we know *where* they are. They're stationed at this penthouse at the artificial river dock." Daniel says. "We just storm the place and call it a day, plus the military operating in this town." "Oh, the most prevalent military in the U.S. versus the most dangerous crime organization on Earth?" Carl demands. "You know what? Fine, fine. We'll go there, but we're taking EVERY police officer, soldier and vigilante we can find, got it?" "Yep." Daniel answers. "And they're not vigilantes." "They fight crime without a permit, they're vigilantes." Carl retorts, as Khaldn clears his throat.

"In case you have not noticed, we're running out of time." Khaldun says, as they suddenly hear a voice over a speaker.

"Hello, law enforcers of Killeen! I am Pyro Scarlet, a new ally to the Quadrilogy!" Pyro booms through a megaphone. "Wait, is this thing on?" Carl growls at this and gets his own megaphone. "AND WHAT MAKES YOU THINK WE'LL LET YOU STAY HERE?!" Carl shrieks through the megaphone, blasting leaves off of trees.

"...This." Pyro, chuckling, says as he smiles sadistically and snaps his fingers.

A massive blast of black and red flames engulfed the entire building in a massive explosion. Trevor had ducked under a table to get to safety as Charlotte, enraged, grabs a katana of the wall and runs to slash at Pyro, who blocks with a golden rapier and smiles.

About fifty soldiers wearing exoskeletons and holding assault rifles flood the building and start firing at anyone they see. Cops not disabled by the initial blast fire back, barely damaging the soldiers' armor. Khaldun frowns and runs to punch one down, as the get back up with a groan and fires at Khaldun point-blank, Khaldun dodging with his teleportation before kicking the soldier unconscious. Connor forms his rag suit and creates blade hands to slash at the soldiers with, catching their fire with snakelike belts that had sprouted out of his back. Connor then turns his arm into a bladed tendril to slash at the soldiers with, cutting into their armor and making them bleed. The soldiers that survived the attack continue to fire, as a bulkier one walked in the building, holding a bazooka.

Charlotte kicks Pyro onto a silo-like building before leaping to slash him, sending another red slash of energy, the 'Viațătranșă', as Valerie had previously put it. Pyro blocks with one of his gauntlets and takes out a golden gun, before firing black bullets covered in red fire from them, which Charlotte dodges and slashes, cutting a bullet inches from her face clean in half and causing it to split two seperate trees down the middle. Charlotte then runs to punch Pyro, who kicks her fist to block and leap backwards, holding his hat on his head as he lands on a bridge between two buildings, the wind picking up to blow at their hair and clothes.

The soldier fires a rocket at Connor, who catches it as it explodes, shielding everyone with his suit. He then starts flicking the fragments at the soldier at breakneck speeds before Khaldun punches him in the face. The attacks manage to damage the armor and hurt the soldier, as he tries to punch Khaldun, who catches his fist, dislocates his shoulder and places his finger on his forehead to put the soldier to sleep, letting him fall to the floor, unconscious. Daniel starts dispersing the fire by bending his arms and fingers around.

Pyro snaps his fingers multiple times, creating red/black flame explosions that Charlotte dodges. She is forced to run through one as it singes her skin, making her wince and groan in pain. Charlotte runs to slash at Pyro, who blocks again before firing at her point-blank. Charlotte, thinking quickly, kicks Pyro and leaps over him, causing the red-clad vampire to get shot in the face with his own bullet, sending him off the roof and tumbling to the ground below. Charlotte runs to the edge of the roof to try and spot Pyro, as he seemingly vanished. Charlotte makes a fist and growls, before turning her attention to the destroyed headquarters.

Everyone had been evacuating as Trevor slashed a soldier's gun in half with an Eletero disc. Charlotte leaps down into the burning building and starts slashing a path out, ignoring the pain of the flames licking her skin as tears started to form in her eyes. "Ugh...it hurts..." Charlotte groans, as they all make it out of the building. "Where's Franklin?" A female officer asks, as they turn to see Franklin walking out of the building with a cup of coffee in his hand. "I had to retrieve my beverage." Franklin says, as the others look dumbstruck.

"We were all nearly killed." Daniel says blankly, as Franklin shrugs and walks over to his van to start writing something on a piece of paper. "He's weird." Carl finally remarks, as Khaldun then begins to help them get ready for the raid.

Darren was standing atop a pedestal, speaking to the audience present as his turn was soon over. "...so you see, I vouch to make this town prosperous and wealthy!" Darren shouts, about forty percent of the audience pumping their fists up and shouting in response. "Darren Mitchel for Mayor!" They shouted in unison. Darren smiles as the event came to a close and Carina helped him into his limousine. Sitting opposite of him was Vanessa, with her hair styled in braids and wearing an expensive dress. Darren blushes a bit, as Vanessa smiled at him. "How'd it go?" She asks. "It went quite well." Darren replies happily. "I will be able to profit and help this town bloom, a real win-win scenario." As he says this the limousine begins to drive away from the building, people then turning to watch the news of the attack that had happened earlier.

It was night. Darren was speaking with Pyro and Reinhardt about business matters as Vanessa slept in a hot spring. Carina stood beside Darren, eyeing both Pyro and Reinhardt with suspicion. At that exact moment, Trevor, Charlotte, Khaldun, Connor, Daniel, the KPD and the Killen Local Military arrived at the dock.

"Darren Mitchel! We have you surrounded!" Carl shouts through his megaphone, as the police and soldiers started to take aim at criminals and Nazis, who were similarly pointing at them. Carina frowned and walked out of the room, as Reinhardt and Darren did the same, Darren calling Vanessa to warn her to leave the building as soon as she could.

All Hell broke loose. There were bullets flying everywhere as Connor and Daniel stayed at ground level to help fight the army of outlaws. Charlotte ran onto a bridge to combat some Nazis as Carina, wearing a black, skintight suit, drew a katana that was glowing faintly blue. Charlotte growls and draws her own katana to clash with Carina, as they slashed and blocked across the bridge. Trevor spotted Darren and ran to fight him, flying with rocket boots. "This wasn't the safest idea!" Trevor shouts shakily as he creates an Eletero disc and throws it at the now-flying Darren, who retaliates by drawing a pistol and firing a needle from it, which hits the disc and forces it to dissipate. Khaldun spots Reinhardt on a helicopter and teleports to slash him. "You again, extraterrestrial?" Reinhardt demands before turning his right arm into a cannon and firing a plasma shot from it at Khaldun, who dodges the blast and lets it hit the building, exploding with enough force to cave one third of it in and set the whole thing on fire, as Connor throws a few Nazis into it. Pyro is impaled by a girder as a rock crushes his arm. Pyro's bleeding mouth smiles as he chuckles. "I can't be done over, yet..." Pyro remarks as he closes his eyes calmly.

Charlotte and Carina continue to clash, slashing apart the area around them. Suddenly, Carina jumps back and lifts up her hood, before pressing a button on her earpiece to create a mask from nanobots. Then, Carina seems to glitch out of existence. "Wha--" Charlotte starts, before being interrupted by a punch from behind, which nearly sends her to the ground. Charlotte regains her balance and steps back, grunting. She sees Carina standing there, still slightly glitching. "What did you just do?!" Charlotte demands. "I quantum tunneled through reality." Carina answers. Charlotte slashes at Carina, who glitches again, but this time phases through the blade as she stabs Charlotte in the shoulder with her own. Carina then kicks Charlotte to the ground and prepares to slash down at her when Connor grabs her legs and slams her into an explosive barrel. "You alright?" Connor asks. "Yeah." Charlotte answers, before joining the fighting below.

Trevor dodges more explosive needles from Darren while panting. "You have explosive needles?!" Trevor screams in fear, before trying to toughen up and creating a disc to slash at Darren with. Darren quickly blocks with his arm, his sleeve being cut, as he then puts his pistol to Trevor's face and fires again, Trevor quickly ducking as he feels a bit of his hair get singed. Trevor then kicks Darren back and throws more discs at the crime lord, who blocks with an umbrella before being cut across the chest by one. "Ugh! I assume your Mutation is finely tuned senses?" Darren says, before drawing a knife and flying to stab Trevor, who quickly blocks with an Eletero shield.

Khaldun and Reinhardt continue slashing each other, as Reinhardt fires at Khaldun with his right arm while wielding a sword with a glowing red blade in his left. Khaldun saw Reinhardt's bionic eye dilate to focus on him, which felt unsettling with that hood obscuring everything else. Khaldun then tries to fire into Reinhardt's eye, Reinhardt catching the bullet and kicking Khaldun, who grabs the helicopter rail with his own bionic arm before beginning to hoist himself up. Reinhardt frowns and blasts Khaldun off, as the helicopter flies into the night. Reinhardt then smiles as he sits in a chair at the back of the helicopter. "War 101: Never leave your enemy with the spoils." Reinhardt remarks, as the Nazi present presses a red button and C4 all over the dock explode in semi-unison, killing and destroying many of the people present, whether friend or foe. Connor shields as many people as he can. Charlotte leaps out of the flames and growls at the quickly leaving helicopter.

Trevor and Darren were battling more frantically, Trevor dodging Darren's attacks as they came. Darren groans in frustration and kicks Trevor away, before firing at one of his rocket boots, exploding it. "GAH!" Trevor screams in pain, his foot being singed. Trevor begins to spiral through the air as he, panicking, tries to reorient himself. Darren laughs. "You are not tolerant of pain at all and your a coward." Darren mocks. "I'm not! I'll keep fighting you!" Trevor shouts back, before creating a larger, more uniform Eletero disc and throwing it at Darren, who tries to block it but is unable. He barely dodges as it cuts his gun arm off. "Ugh!" Darren growls, beginning to descent to the ground below. Darren, furious, grabs a bazooka and takes aim at Trevor. "Goodbye, loser!" Darren yells before he is about to pull the trigger.

"NO! DON'T HURT MY SON!" Vanessa screams, prompting Darren to turn and see his crying girlfriend glaring at him. "You shouldn't be here...you should have left to stay safe." Darren says, bewildered. "Why would you try to murder my son?" Vanessa demands, Darren putting down the bazooka and groaning in pain, as Trevor looked down. "Mom?" Trevor asks, confused. The others gather around them and prepare to fight, when a golden rapier runs through Vanessa's heart.

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" Trevor and Darren simultaneously scream at the top of their lungs. Pyro kicks Vanessa to the ground and smiles, before flying upwards to look at Trevor evilly. "Come and get me, human." Pyro taunts. "NOT MY MOTHER!" Trevor shrieks, flying to create another Eletero disc and slash at Pyro, who blocks with his pinky finger and yawns, forming a visible depression in the Eletero disc. "Wh-what?!" Trevor shouts, as Pyro kicks him to the ground and snaps his fingers to create another explosion right beneath him. "TREVOR!" Charlotte screams, leaping to slash at Pyro, who blocks with his arm and teleports away, laughing. Darren collapses to the ground, crying, as what remains of the police arrive.

Trevor blinked slowly, hearing the steady beeping of a monitor. He woke up to see himself in a hospital, covered in bandages and hooked up to minor life support. "Wha...?" Trevor moans groggily, before suddenly being kissed by Charlotte, who seemed to have been crying for quite a while. "You're alive!" Charlotte shouts shakily, smiling with Trevor with such kindness that he couldn't help but feel the exact same love for her. Then, Trevor remembers what had happened, and starts crying.

"M-mom! Mom! MOM!" Trevor screams, trying to get out of the bed as Khaldun restrained him with one arm. "She's in a coma, but alive." Khaldun says. "You'll only hurt yourself if you keep this up." "H-how is she still alive a-after her heart was sh-shredded?! Trevor demands. "Alien technology, remember?" Khaldun answers. "You need to stay here for a few days and rest." Trevor keeps trying to get out of the bed, before Charlotte suddenly gets in the bed with him. Trevor stops, but starts crying. "M...Mom..." Trevor moans weakly, sadly. "She'll be okay, I-I promise." Charlotte replies, sounding as if she was crying as well Khaldun bows his head down with a scowl as Connor glares out the window. "We're going to find and kill that bastard who did this." Connor growls, his eyes glowing.

The black bag was ripped off of Darren's head, as he gasped for air and saw two very strict and terrifying looking men standing over him with FBI logos on their vests. "What? WHAT?!" Darren shouts, as one of the men presses a finger to his lips. "Shhh!" The man, Evan, says, as they suddenly hear alarms go off. "I'll go check it out." The other man, Fred, says, as he walks out of the room and closes the door. Evan gives Darren a death glare to keep him there.

As Fred walked through the rioting corridors, he was grabbed from behind by Carina. "Uncuff me and let me face this threat." Carina demands. "You'll just use it to escape." Fred retorts with anger. "It's better than being dead--" Carina starts, before a scream is heard and cut off. Vehicles were heard crashing and exploding outside. Fred growls and uncuffs Carina, before giving Carina her sword and suit. "Come right back when you defeat whoever it is. DO YOU UNDERSTAND?!" Fred screams. Carina nods and quantum tunnels away.

Nameless was standing outside the FBI facility, read to walk inside. Burning vehicle remains and bleeding agent remains alike were everywhere. It looked as though an advanced tank had rolled in and started firing. Nameless is about to walk in when he stops. "...Carina...it has been so long." Nameless remarks, as he turns around with his sword in his hand to look at Carina. "So, you are Nameless, the man I was told to worry about by Darren." Carina says, Nameless nodding. "He wasted every last one of his chances and lost whatever ones he had left with the stunt he pulled today." Nameless replies. "And you will not stop me from punishing him for his misbehavior."

Carina runs at Nameless to slash him, Nameless parrying near-perfectly each time, reacting so quickly it seemed, and was probable, that he predicted Carina's moves before the sun had risen yesterday. She tries martial arts, but once again is matched an surpassed by Namless. Carina then phases through his blade to glitch out of existence. Nameless stays still and suddenly slashes behind him, cutting Carina across the chest and sending her to the ground as she bleed and wheezed. Nameless walks into the building, spotting Fred.

Darren was in too much fear of Evan to think of anything else. Gunfire, sword slashes and screams were heard fairly close, as it all suddenly died down at once, including the alarm. Evan slowly draws his pistol and sneaks towards the door. "Friend of yours?" Evan whispers, before opening and closing the door. Gunfire is immediately heard, before being cut off not even a second later.

Darren kept himself from whimpering, but could not do the same for sweating. He didn't struggle to get out of his chains. He couldn't, and trying to do so would alert the attacker to his location. It was an eerie silence, which began to terrify Darren on the inside. Was that a scream? Did he just hear footsteps? Did he imagine it...or was there breathing behind him?

Darren whirls around but sees no one there, he sighs and turns around again, shrieking in pure terror as he saw Nameless just standing there, looking at him as only the moonlight illuminated them.

"P-please n-no..." Darren whimpers, beginning to cry from his injuries, near-loss and fear. "Please, have mercy." Nameless didn't speak or move. He just kept staring at Darren, as the latter began to get constant chills all over his body, this staring lasting but a few minutes before Darren broke the silence.

"Please, I have a son!" Darren screams, crying out of sheer terror. Nameless still doesn't speak. "I thought I had nine chances--" Nameless raises his hand to silence Darren.

"You destroyed your remaining chances...when you aimed to not only marry Vanessa Dillard...but also become Mayor of Killeen." Nameless says slowly, as Darren felt his heart could beat no faster, his hairs standing up on end not being able to become straighter, no sweat left to sweat. Darren just looked at Nameless with the eyes of a man completely destroyed by fear alone.

"And as for your son..." Nameless starts, before suddenly throwing a golden dagger into Darren's throat, instantly killing him. "...you had better pray he does not make your mistakes." Nameless finishes, leaving the now-deserted, destroyed FBI prison.

## Chapter Eleven

A janitor was cleaning up a spill in the laboratory he worked at. He seemed quite happy with his job, whistling. Right then, he heard a clatter and turned around. "Who's here at this hour?" The janitor, his tag identifying him as 'Steve', demands. He walks through the dark hallway as it began flickering. "Guess I'll have to change the lights, then." Steve says, looking for light bulbs. He then feels something behind him and turns around, being impaled through his forehead by something unknown, but vaguely red.

A pale man wearing a hooded cloak was running through an alleyway, panting and growling. He is suddenly grabbed, tripped and hanged up by two rags. The vampire turns around to glare directly into Connor's eyes. "I hate your power! Our entire clan hates your power!" The vampire roars. "Shut up and tell us where to find your grand leader Valerie!" Connor yells back, prompting the vampire to shout in shock. "She did not tell me! I swear!" The vampire screams. "He's telling the truth. I can see it in his mind." Khaldun confirms. Connor roars and cuts the vampire in half. "I am TIRED of dead ends!" Connor yells. "We might not be at a dead end..." Khaldun remarks. "Follow me." "Is it another spaceship?" Connor demands, following anyway.

They reach an open field with what looked like a crop circle in the grass. Connor's eyelids droop. "Yep, it is." Connor answers himself, as the golden UFO uncloaks itself and flies upwards to bring Khaldun and Connor up with a purple tractor beam. In fact, all the lights on the spacecraft seemed to be purple.

They get up and look around the ship. There was a control panel and screen. No windows but instead a higher screen circulating the top of the craft and simulating the outside. The floor the tractor beam came from was solid. No door. "Teleportation tech?" Connor asks to himself. They look around and see advanced lab equipment, jars and the like everywhere there was space on the circulating table. A curvy woman with the same green skin and eyes, with more orange-ish hair, was standing there with her arms together. "Greetings. Welcome to my father's laboratory." The woman says. "Father?" Connor asks, tilting his head. "It's me!" A higher voice shouts. They turn to see a man with green paint over most of his lighter green face, except the cheeks, nose, chin and forehead. He had the same green eyes, but his pupils glowed a slightly different shade of green. He was wearing a light beige robe with a golden, Egyptian-looking chestplate. Red straps kept his sword in place on his chest. He was wearing what looked like a velvet travel pillow with an Egyptian Pharaoh-type head dress, with a purple diamond on the crest.

"Hello, Krincax." Khaldun replies. Krincax smiles even wider than he already was, his grey-blue teeth being even more prominent. "Welcome to my offsite laboratory, Khaldun and random human!" Krincax says, earning a glare from Connor. "Oh, don't be like that. I just need your name." Krincax says. "It's Connor...Zelinger." Connor growls. Krincax chuckles. "A Connor? Intriguing!" Krincax replies, before walking away to start taking apart some weird alien squid, making it squeal. "We need your help to find--" Khaldun starts. "The leader of the Sabertooth Clan, I know." Krincax finishes. "But there are bigger threats at the moment, like the serial killer who just attacked. Aezla, turn on the TV!" "Yes, Father." The woman, Aezla, says with a bow before getting a remote and turning on the lower screen, showing the news that Trevor and Charotte happened to be watching.

"Breaking news! Earlier tonight, a janitor was found dead in D.E.E.R. Industries' main laboratory with a hole through his head!" The news lady says, as Krincax grunts. "I can't believe someone aiding science would be taken out. It annoys me." Krincax says with a growl, as the news lady continues talking. "The wound goes straight through the head and appears to be a stab wound. Citizens are urged to exercise caution until the police capture the perpetrator of this heinous act. Thanks for watching and as always, we are Channel 13!" The news lady finishes, as Aezla turns the screen off.

"We must avenge that assistant of science and make that killer feel the pain!" Krincax yells. Aezla nods and creates a tracker to look for the killer's DNA.

Austin was pacing across Collins' room, as she eyed him with a worried expression. "You can...leave now." Collins says. Austin just sits on the chair and looks at her sadly. "No, Maria...I was the reason this happened to you. I am going to try and act more mature." Maria chuckles. "I like how carefree you usually are, and it wasn't your fault, it was Chaemirah's, and he's dead.' Maria replies, before they both hear a throat be cleared.

They turn to see a man with messy reddish-grey hair and bloodred eyes, wearing a tattered military officer outfit, standing there. He had a scar across his nose and a stubble beard, as well as being muscular yet relatively skinny.

"...Hi?" Austin says nervously. The man chuckles. "Hello, General Austin. My name is Marcus Clayton." The man, Marcus, says. "Hello." Maria replies. "What are you doing here? I haven't seen anyone like you in the military, so what's with the getup. Are you imitating us?" "Oh, no. I used to be in the military, but I left after something bad happened to me." Marcus replies. "Well, I'll be on my way. I wish you a swell recovery!" Austin and Maria's eyelids drooped, as Marcus left the hospital.

Trevor woke up to see Charlotte laying in the hospital bed with him, with one of her hands on his cheek. "You're still here...?" Trevor asks. "Yes...I will always be here for you, Trevor." Charlotte answers. Trevor looks around, and notices his leg is numb. Right then, Krincax bursts through the door. "Greetings, Earthlings!" Krincax shouts. Trevor screams and turns brick-red, as Charlotte, blushing, frowns at Krincax. "Who are you?" Charlotte demands in a threatening tone. "My name is Krincax, Star-C's Top Scientist!" Krincax replies with his arms spread out in a dramatic pose.

Charlotte's eyelids droop. "...Get out, unless you're going to help us." Charlotte says bluntly. Krincax smiles his already bared teeth, showing his pure white gums. "Oh, but I can help you." Krincax replies, taking out a syringe. Trevor sees it and faints. "Oh, don't be a farm bird, human! This will heal you!" Krincax says. before walking over to inject the substance into Trevor. "GAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" Trevor screams, before he can feel his leg again. "Ugh...what the..." Trevor moans, as he almost faints again. Charlotte catches him and glares at Krincax. "Hey, it's a prototype." Krincax says with a shrug, before walking out to administer the medicine to Maria.

It had been a while. Trevor and Charlotte met up with Khaldun and Connor. "Who was that banana-head who gave me an IV or something?!" Trevor shouts. "That was Krincax and he is completely insane." Khaldun answers, before he hears screaming and looks around to see Caitlyn standing there with Marcus' hand on her face. "It's time you perished for your sins against Mankind, monster." Marcus says, before seemingly forcing all of Caitlyn's blood to spurt out of her ears, nose, eyes and mouth. He lets go of her head and she falls over, dead.

Marcus then turns around and notices them. "So, you're the vampire who managed to fool the world." Marcus says, holding out his hand behind him as Caitlyn's blood forms into a scythe in his hand. He looks at the other three. "And you're the ones who directly support her." "Hey! She stopped other vampires from overrunning this city!" Connor shouts at Marcus, who palms his face. "Perhaps, but that simply means the problem has shrunk. Vampires are genetically coded to hunt down human beings as their prey. Their Mutation has essentially made them a separate species." Marcus replies, holding his sunglasses to his face. He then runs at Charlotte to slash her, as Charlotte barely blocks with the now cracked katana, which was sliced clean in half by the blood blade.

"What?!" Charlotte shouts, leaping back. "Your own strength means that nothing short of an indestructible weapon would be able to survive the stress of you clashing it with another weapon." Marcus says, as the street lamps flicker and he appears in front of Charlotte to grab her face, but Trevor grabs Marcus by the wrist and forces it up. "I won't let you hurt her!" Trevor yells. "Then you've fallen into her trap, traitor." Marcus replies, throwing Trevor into a wall. "It's people like you that prevent humanity from winning the war. This is the vampires' queen. Killing her will mean that humanity will finally become Earth's dominant species and never have to worry about another trans-species war again."

"I don't know what a vampire did to you, Marcus, but that does not excuse you killing all of them." Khaldun says, drawing his sword to clash with Marcus, who blocks with the blood scythe and kicks Khaldun away. "I can oxygenate a certain part of my body with my blood, whether it be my brain for my senses or my legs for evasion." Marcus says as he rushes to slash the scythe at Khaldun, Connor blocking with a rag sword. "Don't you dare!" Connor roars in anger, slashing Marcus back. "Ugh! I can also force my blood to clot at my wounds and for my immune system to work on repairing it, thus increasing my healing speed. Regardless, I'll have to retreat for now." Marcus says, before the lights flicker and he disappears.

"Wow...that was intense..." Trevor says, getting up with a groan. Charlotte walks over to help Trevor up, as Khaldun frowns. "I wonder what made him this kind of monster..." Khaldun says quietly.

Marcus is running through a dark and old-looking forest. He was slashing away anything that could be an obstacle as his body continued to heal. He then hears running water. "Yes, I made it back." Marcus remarks with a sigh of relief. He then walks over to a road with street lamps in the forest and walks along it to a bridge with steel railing, also with street lamps. The bright was set over a rapid-flowing river, and seemed to have a third bridge connected to the middle, and jutting out over a waterfall to a large structure in a circular shaped lake.

"Hey!" A male voice shouts. Marcus keeps his hands in his pockets and turns his head to glare at two soldiers, a male and female. "There are soldiers patrolling here, now?" Marcus demands, as thunder roared overhead. "Stop right there and put your hands up where we can see them!" The female soldier shouts. "You're lieutenants." Marcus replies. "I can tell from the outfits you are wearing." Marcus seemed to have opened his military uniform up like a jacket, and his frown deepened. The soldiers then take out guns to fire at Marcus, who evades the gunfire with ease, also dodging a combat knife, before putting his hand on the male's chest. "I could give you anemia by having your white blood cells devour your red blood cells, but reversing your blood flow would be far more merciful." Marcus says, as the male drops dead.

"No! Dave!" The female yells, trying to fire at Marcus point-blank. Marcus dodges the bullet and grabs the female's wrist, severing the tendons in it to make her drop her gun. "I could also absorb your blood into my own, as I am O+, but I do not wish to become like the vampires I so despise." Marcus says, before making the female's blood turn into spikes and stab through her stomach. She bleeds out of her mouth, crying and falls over, dead, her name tag identifying her as Hanna. Marcus walks over the other bridge to enter the structure.

*A kid with orange, less messy, but more spiky hair, with the same bloodred eyes, and less pale, less cracked skin was playing with a girl with similar looks, supposedly his sister. "No fair, Marcus! You always go first in Tag!" The girl shouts, laughing. "I'll let you have the next turn, Mable, I promise!" Marcus replies, also laughing. "Kids! Get inside before the rain starts!" Their mother calls from inside their house. "Okay, Mom! We're coming!" Marcus calls back, as he and Mable ran inside with their mother. Their father was smiling as he read the news. "It looks like this damn Cold War is finally over!" Thier father shouts with obvious relief in his voice. "That's amazing! We can finally be at peace." Their mother says. "But what about vampires, Mommy?" Mable asks. "There hasn't been a vampire attack in decades. I think we're fine." Their mother answers. "I mean there's that one vampire who keeps killing anyone they see." Their father replies. Suddenly, they hear a snapping sound, and then an explosion.*

*They run outside to see Pyro and Shiraki standing there. Shiraki was collecting human bodies while Pyro looked around the burning village. He turns to see Marcus' family and smiles evilly, baring his fangs, before snapping his fingers to create another explosion at their house.*

*Marcus' hand twitches, as Marcus slowly gets up with a bleeding, destroyed face. He looks terrified, as he sees Pyro slash their father in half with a golden rapier, tipping his hat up to show them his pointed ears and glowing red, slitted eyes. Pyro then takes out a gun and fires down their mother and Mable. "No! No! Don't hurt them!" Marcus screams. Pyro smiles evilly at the young Marcus, pointing his gun at him, when Shiraki taps his shoulder. "We're supposed to return to base, Pyro." Shiraki says. Pyro sighs. "I guess we'll have to let this one live with the trauma, then." Pyro replies. Shiraki walks away and Pyro turns to walk away as well, but not before turning his head to look Marcus in the eye. "Listen ta' me, kid. Humans and Vampires...will NEVER co-exist. It's us or you, drill that inta' your skull." Pyro says, before walking away as well.*

Marcus sighs and lifts his head up. The fact that he was sitting in the heavy rain made it hard to tell if he was crying. "I know what I'm doing is wrong, and have no will to evade the law once my mission is complete. But I will not rest until the human race has been rid of vampires." Marcus says to himself, as thunder roars.

Trevor, Charlotte, Khaldun and Connor were once again in the military hangar, with fifty soldiers, Austin, Maria, Daniel, Krincax and Aezla present as well. "So we're up against a vampire hunter?" Maria demands. "A hemokinetic, t o be precise." Krincax answers. "We believe to have located him." Aezla turns on the miltary screen and shows a diagram of the structure Marcus had entered. "Oh yeah, I remember that. It was constructed as a war prison for the Nazis back during WWII. Solitude, I believe the project was named." Daniel says. "Two lieutenant-class soldiers were found dead on the bridge leading to the complex, and they were seemingly killed with hemokinesis." Krincax replies. "Then we're going there!" Trevor shouts. "No one attacks our town and gets away with it!" The others agree. "We will avenge Steve the janitor!" Krincax yells, making everyone fall over.

As everyone was walking along the road that led to the bridge, the lights were flickering and owls were hooting. Thunder rumbled in the distance as they began to see the bridge. Krincax was humming a random tune and fidgeting with syringes. They reached the bridge and saw the blood mostly washed away, with the area around it blocked from enter by civilians. They walked across the bridge to the structure, as they opened the door and looked around.

"Split up! Look for a man with grey-orange hair and cracks on his face!" Daniel shouts. The soldiers run with Krincax and Aezla, along with Austin, Maria and Daniel. Trevor, Charlotte, Khaldun and Connor walk in the opposite direction, and stay close together. They looked around and Trevor once thought he saw Marcus, but it was a mannequin. Everyone seemed on edge.

Krincax and the army walked around the other half of the complex, walking into a prison building. A few of the soldiers got lost and reached an elevator. The lights on the elevator button panel turned green and the elevator doors opened. The soldiers get ready to fire, as lightning crashes, illuminating Marcus. Before the soldiers can even pull the trigger, Marcus slashes them in half and throws them out of the prison building. Marcus' eyes now glowed bright red, as he walked away from the window.

Daniel, Austin, Maria and Krincax were walking up the stairs to the top of the prison building. When they got there, they saw Marcus standing there with his head slightly bowed down, his eyes glaring at them. "Why must you interfere with my mission?" Marcus demands. "I am trying to keep our damn species from going extinct!" "Well, I want to keep studying vampires, so if you could kindly not kill them--" Krincax starts, as Daniel walks to stand in front of them and face Marcus. "Enough. I'm taking this one out." Daniel says, as he snaps his fingers...yet nothing happened. "Was that a threatening gesture, Major?" Marcus asks, before forming his hand into a blood sword and running to slash at Daniel, who barely dodges as Maria takes out a rifle and fires at Marcus, who dodges and runs to grab Maria's arm, which Maria barely dodges and kicks Marcus away.

"He might need to touch us to manipulate our blood!" Maria shouts, as Austin takes out a gun and tries to fire at Marcus, who dodges before being stabbed in the forehead by a dagger Austin had thrown. "Guh!" Marcus snarls, as his back and head bend backward and his arms flop down by his side. "Perhaps, but I still have my own blood!" Marcus roars, bowing his head and torso forwards before his body starts to morph. Blood spikes stabbed out of his body and started breaking apart to cover Marcus in a blood suit. His left hand turned into a scythe blade, as his right's fingers became dagger-like claws. His teeth sharpened and his eyes turned pure red. Blood vein-esk tentacles sprouted from his back as he stands somewhat upright and glares directly at his opponents. Austin faints and Daniel throws up. Maria glares back, but is unnerved. Krincax smiles at Marcus. "My turn." Krincax says.

Marcus hears metal scraping and feels the prison building rumble. "What the--" Marcus starts, his voice sounding distorted, before a giant golden robot snake with glowing purple eyes smashes out of the prison building. Marcus growls at the snake, as Krincax chuckles. "This is one of my many inventions." Krincax proudly declares. The snake then tries to eat Marcus, who leaps back and runs to slash at the creature, leaving impressions in the gold. "Is this thing made of actual gold?!" Marcus yells. "It's a prototype!" Krincax yells back, before Marcus kicks the snake upward and off the building. Marcus then runs to grab Krincax' face, but nothing happens. "Wh-what?!" Marcus yelps, as Krincax laughs and sticks out his tongue. "I rearranged my circulatory system and replaced my blood with a substane that fulfills the same purpose." Krincax answers, before his sword seems to automatically block a slash from Marcus. "Ayahla Eaeihs!" Krincax shouts, blasting Marcus out of the complex with a golden beam of energy.

"...I can't believe a psycho freak just did better than we did." Daniel remarks, his eyelids drooping. Trevor, Charlotte, Khaldun and Connor run up the building and see Krincax standing there with the snake, looking pleased with himself. "Steve the janitor has been avenged!" Krincax declares.

Marcus wakes up, now only half the monster he turned into. He shakily stands up and looks around. "I'm back in Killeen..." Marcus mutters. He walks along the sidewalk until he reaches a dark alleyway and walks into it, spotting Nameless standing there, staring at him. "You...you're the man who allied himself with the Sabertooth Clan, the organization that destroyed my village and murdered my family. I will grant you justice!" Marcus screams, running at Nameless, ready to slash him with his sword. Nameless just stands still. Marcus then slashes at Nameless' side, right when Nameless twitches his sword.

Marcus starts bleeding like crazy, choking, before he falls over and breaks apart, glaring at Namless with his dying breaths. "*I...I failed...*" Marcus thinks to himself, as everything goes black.

## Chapter Twelve

It was still raining, albeit less heavily. Daniel was with a man holding a plastic bag. "Are you absolutely certain this is Marcus Clayton's blood, Keith?" Daniel demands, sounding dead serious. "Yes. It looks like he lost a lot of blood, and given the spill pattern he was slashed hundreds of times in seconds." Keith answers. "And yet no slash marks on the walls or floor?" Daniel asks, sounding concerned. "The killer must have been incredibly precise." Keith replies. Daniel groans. "This has the potential to become a city-wide if not national emergency. If Marcus isn't here either the killer destroyed the body or Marcus is still alive somewhere. I want the city blockaded and thoroughly searched four times in a row. No one gets in or out until we catch Marcus and figure out what the Hell is going on." Daniel shouts strictly, the soldiers present saluting. "Sir!" They shout in unison.

Labored breathing was reverberating off the walls of the sewer, along with slightly chaotic footsteps and grunts of pain. A rat squealed and ran away as a badly bleeding Marcus with torn clothing shuffled around the corner, holding his shoulder and leaning against the wall, his glasses destroyed. "Damn! That man was no vampire, I could tell from the eyes, but...he moved far faster than any vampire I've destroyed." Marcus growls to himself. "I'm lucky I activated my Haemoregeneration, or I would be a dead man." "Well, perhaps you'll end up being one anyway." Shiraki's voice replies from the shadows, prompting Marcus to gasp slightly and turn around to see two eyes, the left one yellow and the right one red, present in the darkness, with a black robe with a red stripe down the middle and along the bottom of it. "That voice...you're one of the vampires who destroyed my village." Marcus says angrily. "You...you are especially deserving of my wrath!" Shiraki's fangs are bared in a smile, as the vampire scientist walks out of the shadows with his sword drawn. "Then try to render judgement on me, human." Shiraki replies. "I trust that my blade, Cunoştinţe, will surprise you."

Marcus begins to claw his hand into five blood knives when Shiraki rushes at him and slashes him, nearly decapitating Marcus as the latter swiftly bends his head backwards to dodge, grunting in pain as he does so. Marcus then slashes his claw upwards to cut Shiraki, opening up his cheek with five slashes. "Ugh!" Shiraki exclaims, stumbling backwards a bit. "You are good for your condition." "I don't accept compliments from insane vampire terrorists!" Marcus screams, putting his hand to Shiraki's face and beginning to force all his red blood cells to slash out of his head. Shiraki screams in agony and blasts Marcus off of him, as Marcus swiftly cuts a rock into a cross and throws it at Shiraki, lodging it in the vampire's mouth as he falls over. "*Dirty trick, human...*" Shiraki thinks, as he passes out and Marcus, bleeding even worse, shuffles away.

Franklin was standing atop a pedestal, addressing the civilians who had gathered there to riot. "Look, I know this blockade seems random and unnecessary, but the truth is that Marcus is still alive and we need to keep everyone here to search, as well as another killer who supposedly easily defeated Marcus, possibly the same killer that took out that FBI facility all by himself and scared the most powerful crime organization in the world, 'Nameless'." Franklin says, the civilians beginning to quiet down. "Furthermore, the Sabertooth Clan still has agents in this city that are working to convert this whole place into a vampire hotmess which I believe their scientist can control. We are essentially quarantining ourselves until we can solve these problems, and let's not forget about REICH."

"Four different enemies that have nothing to do with each other, all trying to take down this city? I don't believe it one bit?" Connor mutters. "There's gotta' be something bigger going on." "I agree, but now's not the time. There's a possible member of the Sabertooth Clan in this complex. Connor and I will apprehend them." Khaldun replies, as Franklin finishes his speech and everyone disbands.

As Khaldun and Connor begin to walk away, Trevor and Charlotte were met by Austin, who was smiling at them. "Hi, you two! I always love a good couple!" Austin says enthusiastically, earning a slap from Charlotte that nearly breaks his neck. "Ouch! What was that for?!" Austin whines, before getting back up. "Anyways, since everyone is stuck in this city for God knows how long I thought I'd show you my family!" Austin takes out a photo of a girl with his blonde hair, but the pink eyes of his darker-haired wife. "That's my wife Gabrielle and my daughter Joy. Little Joy's turning three today!" Austin shouts happily, blushing and chuckling with a huge grin on his face. Trevor just looked confused, as Charlotte put her hand over her mouth and giggled. "Alright, then. Let's go see your daughter." Charlotte answers, as she grabs Trevor's hand and they follow Austin to his home.

Austin rang the doorbell to his apartment, as the door opened and Gabrielle walked out to see them. "Oh, you two must be Trevor Dillard and Charlotte Nechita. The whole media's been buzzing about your aid in stopping those criminals." Gabrielle says. "Come right on in. We're hosting the birthday party!" They all walk inside to see the apartment covered in pink tapestry, with pink balloons everywhere and presents containing toys, including a horse, opened. Joy was playing with three little boys that had come to visit, laughing and smiling widely. "Isn't she the cutest thing?" Austin asks, looking extremely happy. "Yes, she absolutely is." Charlotte answers, also smiling. "Yep." Trevor answers as well. "Hold on!" Austin says, before turning to look at Joy. "How old are you today?" Austin asks. "Um...two." Joy says. "Wait, three." There was a pause, then Trevor, Charlotte and Austin all place their hands on their cheeks and laughed. "So cute!" They shout in unison, as Gabrielle chuckles with a smile on her face.

There was suddenly a knock on the door. "Oh, who could be visiting us?" Austin asks, walking over to open the door and see Maria standing there. "Woah!" Austin shouts, jumping back. "This is Maria Collins, Austin's best friend and direct lieutenant." Gabrielle says. Maria smiles a bit and waves at Joy, who waves back with a smile. "Daddy's friend! Yay!" Joy shouts, running to hug Maria's leg. "Aren't you an adorable little one." Maria says, before turning to Austin. "I assume you heard of the blockade Major Daniel has placed on this city?" "Yes, I have. I brought this cute couple here so they could meet my lovely family." Austin says happily. "Good, now can you tell me..." Maria starts, sounding completely different in tone. "...what work you have today?" There was a long pause, before Austin, looking more serious, addresses her. "Just some forensics work, that's all." Austin answers, now not sounding one bit happy, but suspicious. Maria and Austin eye each other for a second, before Maria smiles. "That's all I needed to know. Sorry for that pause, I'll be leaving now. All of you have a great day?" Maria says, walking away as Austin sighed. "For a second I thought she might be a double agent." Austin says.

Maria was walking towards a limousine, smiling darkly. The door opened and she got in, looking at the mirror to see the other man's eyes. "Did you learn what you needed to learn?" The man asks in a modulated voice. "Yes, I have. We will need a plan to eliminate Austin from the equation." Maria answers. "We will, but first we must find Voxir." The man replies, as the limousine drives away.

Khaldun and Connor were walking through a run-down alleyway with broken signs hanging by at times only one chain. There was no one present at the deserted market in the alleyway. It seemed quiet, too quiet. "When will we find what we're looking for?" Connor asks. "We'll find it when we find it." Khaldun answers, looking around.

"I know where you can find what you seek." A slithery voice says. They turn to see a shorter, skinnier man with cracked skin, wearing a brown cloak standing there in an alley crevice and looking at them sinisterly.

They kick the man through a rusted metal door and look down at him. "What kind of imp is this?" Connor asks. "He's my little servant, so I suggest backing off." An average-note, casual-sounding voice says. They turn to see a man with pale skin, red eyes, pointed ears and styled black hair. He wore a leather jacket, golden glasses with purple lenses, grey cargo pants and a smug expression. He also had golden rings on all ten of his fingers, as well as a golden necklace and golden bracelets. His fangs even seemed to be gold.

"...So the Sabertooth Clan member we were looking for is a bling vampire?" Connor asks. The vampire laughs. "I haven't been a member of the Sabertooth Clan since the end of the Cold War, buddy!" The vampire says, taking off his glasses and grinning. "Name's Voxir, by the way, world's richest vampire!"

"...You're under arrest for grand larceny, Voxir." Khaldun says, sounding bored. Voxir's eyes dialate, before he processes what he just heard. "YES! FINALLY! PEOPLE HATE ME FOR A REASON OTHER THAN ME BEING A VAMPIRE!" Voxir yells. Khaldun raises an eyebrow, as the imp runs away. "You know what? For that alone, I'll show you my little gift." Voxir says. "Of all the vampires in my rank of C, I am the absolute fastest."

Right when Voxir says that, Khaldun and Connor are suddenly rammed into the wall. Voxir was standing right where they used to be. "I guess he isn't kidding." Connor says, before forming his suit around himself and slashing at Voxir, who dodges each and every slash before leaping to slash Khaldun across the cheek. "Ugh!" Khaldun grunts before taking out his gun and firing at Voxir, who leaps back with a yelp of pain. "Is that UV light? Damn, you came prepared. That stuff's dangerous to humans, let alone vampires." Voxir says.

Rosette walks into Connor's dorm with a flower in her hand. She notices a note saying that Connor is away. "Oh, no..." Rosette says, before running out of the school to search for Connor. "What has he gotten himself into this time?"

Khaldun and Connor were still struggling to hit Voxir, who was grinning cockily at the fact that he was effortlessly dodging them. "Dammit, I'm not even using Vitezaviață and I'm only moving half my natural speed!" Voxir shouts, cackling in joy. "Laugh all you want, Voxir. We'll take you down!" Connor yells, forming his hands into blades and running to slash at Voxir at top speed. Voxir dodges--but is slashed in the cheek by a cloth tendril. Voxir stumbles back, smiling. "I'm impressed. You're certainly smart to predict my movements like that." Voxir compliments. "Keep it up. I like a good challenge!" Voxir bulrushes Connor, who barely blocks with a belt shield before slashing Voxir away.

Rosette continues to walk along the broken-down hallway, feeling Connor's presence closer and closer. She eventually breaks down the door, seeing everyone freeze up and turn to stare at her. "...Hoo dis?" Voxir asks, the most confused. "Rose? What are you doing here?" Connor asks. "I came to make sure you were alright, Connor!" Rosette shouts back, before an invisible force slams Voxir to the wall. "Ow..." Voxir says, before he is slammed to the floor. Voxir regenerates and begins to stand up, wiping blood off his face. "Damn, just who is this chick?" Voxir demands with a smile on his face.

"Noelle Rosette, the Furni protector of Killeen!" Rosette shouts.

## Chapter Thirteen

Voxir just stares for a moment, before scratching the back of his head and laughing. "Well, well. This is certainly a surprise!" Voxir shouts. "I thought the Furni were extinct. I guess then looking near-identical to humans is true, and I'll guess the same for the types of Evolved Mutations they can recieve." Voxir then leaps backwards towards a door. "Psychokinetic Aura, right?" Voxir asks. "No matter, why fight a fourteen-year-old girl? I'm outta' here!" Voxir then runs through the door and into the sewers. "Get back here, coward!" Rosette screams at Voxir, who was laughing as he got farther and farther away. "Rose..." Connor starts, looking at Rosette as she, reluctantly, takes off her beret, revealing small, bony horns. "Those are used to siphon Eletero out of the air, and turn it into the Aura required to enhance one's Mutation." Khaldun remarks. "I thought you were all killed during..." Suddenly, multiple hooded figures appear in every nook and cranny, boxing the three in. "The Hell?" Connor demands, his suit repairing itself and seemingly healing him as he forms his arms into sword blades.

More odd monsters in Voxir's army were either trying to protect each other or hide from more hooded vampires, who seemed to have been given weaponry. What appears to be another Furni manages to bisect a vampire, before being blasted to the ground by a red and yellow spiraling laser. Shiraki walks to stand over her, smiling sadistically. "Well, this will further my research by quite the margin." Shiraki sneers.

Voxir was still running away, faster as he had heard the commotion. "*Dammit! All my servants are dead?!*" Voxir thinks to himself. "*How the Hell did they even find me? I destroyed Shiraki's tracker scarab robot thing a decade ago!*" Voxir notices someone in the shadows standing in front of him, holding their arm. Marcus walks out of the shadows and glares at Voxir. "Another vampire deserving of my wrath." Marcus growls, making Voxir nearly scream. "I'm a THIEF, a CROOK! Why can't I EVER get that treatment?! Why is it always 'I don't care that you stole my family's savings I only care that you're a vampire'?!" Voxir yells. Marcus frowns. "You're the one who wants treatment other than being a vampire. I must confess, I hold my own prejudices towards your race after what happened to my village. Do NOT stack more crimes on top of that--..." Marcus trails off, looking at something behind Voxir. "The Hell? Did you just forget about me?" Voxir demands, before suddenly feeling a chill down his spine. His eye turns to look to his right, before his head, and finally the rest of his body.

Nameless was standing at a doorway, his mask shrouded in shadow. The lights flickered, illuminating the somewhat green sewage water, and the large artificial waterfall it was all flowing to. "Is this that human serial killer? I think I'll pass." Voxir says, his hand held up in boredom. Suddenly, his hand is cut off, as Nameless is standing just a few feet away from them. Marcus grunts. "Damn, looks like the human's got some moves!" Voxir yells, as he starts trying to dodge Nameless' slashes, being cut nonetheless. "Argh! Nice reflexes! It's no fun without a challenge!" Voxir shouts, his hand regenerating as the vampire takes out a gun and starts firing at Nameless, who effortlessly deflects each and every bullet back slashing at Voxir, bisecting the gun. "Seriously...?" Voxir exclaims, before throwing the gun at Nameless, who ducks under it and kicks at Voxir's leg, causing the vampire to fall to the ground. Nameless then simultaneously cuts through Voxir's tendons and pins him to the ground with four silver knives. "GRAH!" Voxir screams. "SERIOUSLY, WHY DIDN'T I TAKE SHIRAKI'S STUPID DRUG?! IT BURNS!" Voxir continues trying to move, but his arms and legs had become useless. "Whether you are a vampire or human, you still require your tendons to use your hands or feet. Without the tendons in your legs, you cannot walk. These silver blades will keep you from healing said tendons until they are removed, making them convenient cuff-like weapons." Nameless says, kicking Voxir in the face to knock him out.

"How can you be human?" Marcus demands, taking a step back and getting his good arm in a fighting pose. Nameless turns his head to look at Marcus. "Simply, I have trained in all forms of combat for decades, and my Mutation allows me to push my body beyond its limits without issue." Nameless answers, before turning again to see Khaldun, Connor and Rosette there, in fighting positions and glaring at him. "Who are you?!" Connor yells. "Wait, no! He's the man responsible for my injuries, which still have not yet healed!" Marcus shouts. "Don't be foolish, escape while you still can--" Nameless backhands Marcus unconscious. "You would be wise to heed his instructions, allies of the Vampire Queen." Nameless remarks. "We're not escaping. There's three of us and only one of you!" Khaldun yells. Nameless seems to grin, as he unsheathes his other sword.

Trevor and Charlotte were still at Austin's place, Austin happily playing with his daughter Joy, who in turn was fending Austin off with a doll. "Haha! No fair, Daddy! You a lot bigger than me!" Joy shouts. Charlotte giggled, and looked towards Trevor. "She's so adorable." Charlotte says. "You can say that again." Trevor replies with a smile. Charlotte then bows her head down. "She reminds me...of myself when I was her age..." Charlotte trails off. Trevor held her hand. "What's wrong, Char?" Trevor asks, sounding concerned. "You can tell me anything, right?" Charlotte doesn't answer, and instead leans into Trevor, crying silently. A **meow** echoed through her head.

Suddenly the phone rang. Austin goes to pick it up and hears Daniel. "We need you for research, if you're not too busy." Daniel says. "Uh, okay. Can I say goodbye to Joy, first?" Austin asks nicely. Daniel sighs. "Yeah, sure. It's not too urgent, just a clue as to what the Hell is happening in this city." "Okee dokee, Loki!" Austin replies, before hanging up and crouching down to scratch Joy's head. "That tickles, stop!" Joy yells with a laugh. "Daddy has a lot of important work to do, but I promise to be back as soon as I can, okay?" Austin asks. "Okay, Daddy!" Joy says, hugging Austin. As she lets go, Gabrielle walks to hug Austin as well, also kissing him. "Get home safely, dear." Gabrielle says. "Can do, milady." Austin replies, before walking to his car.

Nameless was effortlessly parrying Connor's slashes, while also using a knife strapped to his left leg to parry Khaldun's sword as well. Nameless also ducked and weaved around the invisible weaponry Rosette was creating. "Impressive Psychic Constructs, but they must hit to be worth the effort of creating." Nameless says, revealing another knife on his other leg before flipping into the air and twirling around to slash all three of them at once, knocking them back. "Ugh! Damn, he's fast!" Khaldun yells, before taking out his gun and firing at Nameless, who slashes the blast in half. "A plasma bullet...not much of a problem for Teufelkante." Nameless remarks. "What...?" Khaldun groans, as Nameless slashes behind him to cut Connor's suit into fours, and slash him across the face. "ARGH!" Connor screams, falling to the ground as Nameless flips to Rosette, wraps compact rope around her horns and twirls, breaking them off and making the Psychic Constructs vanish. Nameless then walks away, but not before speaking to Khaldun. "Tell the Vampire Queen about me, and refer to me as 'Nameless'." Nameless demands, walking back into the shadows with Voxir on his shoulder.

Rosette gets up, looking a bit delirious. She then sees Connor whimpering as blood poured out of the gash in his face. "Connor, no!" Rosette screams before pulling herself to Connor and placing her hand on his wound, beginning to heal it. "Wha...?" Connor starts, before fainting from the agony. Khaldun gets up, holding his arm. "I think...we now know just how dangerous this is." Khaldun remarks, grunting in pain.

Austin was in what looked like a library with a tall man wearing goggles and a more petite woman wearing a sweater. "Ah, I think I've hit something!" Austin shouts, before gasping and bowing his head down, his glasses hiding his eyes. "I'll need to work out the rest of this in private if that's okay." Austin says with a more serious tone. "But why, Austin?" The woman asks. "Trust me, Sadie. This is not something you want to see." Austin answers. "You gave me this job. Can I help in any way?" Sadie asks. There was a pause, then, Austin answered. "Yes. Please look into the history of the Sabertooth Clan." "Yes sir!" Sadie says with a salute, before walking to search for books on the aforementioned clan.

Austin was in a room all by himself, or so it appeared. He was holding a map of Killeen and the U.S. at large. He seemed to be pouring through books and using a marker to connect things. "It's definitely not a coincidence that the city with the most powerful military bunker also receives this much punishment, but that's only what REICH would care about. Why would the Sabertooth Clan, who want to politically dominate the planet and destroy humans, start with what is otherwise a small town? It doesn't make any sense, unless the killer who took out Darren Mitchel and got the Sabertooth Clan out of prison has something to do with it. But why would he--..." Austin trails off, as he realizes something and takes out a photo of someone. "No, how is this even possible?" Austin demands. "I have to tell Daniel and the President right away!" Austin yells, before hearing Valerie's voice. "What a smart man, to have figured it all out from fifty-year-old documents." Valerie says. Austin turns to glare at her when she smiles, showing her fangs. "N-nice dental work." Austin says. "You really want those to be your last words, human?" Valerie asks, before drawing her sword and running to slash at Austin, cutting him across the abdomen as he throws a knife into her forehead. "Ugh!" Valerie screams, stepping back and contorting her body to handle the stress. Austin limps away, bleeding. "Dammit!" Austin yells.

"Dammit..." Valerie starts, ripping the knife out of her bleeding skull as it starts to regenerate. "...that's exactly how I feel right now."

Austin limped over to the phone booth. "Why didn't I get a cellphone?" Austin demanded to himself, as the attendant saw him. "Y-you're bleeding!" She shouts. "I-it's nothing, I s-swear!" Austin groans back, putting his bloodied hand on the phone and picking it up, before putting the phone, now covered in blood, back on the stand and walking away. "Wait, you need medical attention!" The attendant yells. "No I don't, Hannah!" Austin yells back, sounding as though he might be bleeding from his mouth.

Austin walked over to a private phone booth and walked in, shutting the door behind him. "He can't be watching me from a century-old calling line. Daniel installed one of these types of phones in his office just in case." Austin says, still coughing blood. He then dials his number and looks at his book. "We'll need your number." The phone manager says. "Are you trying to waste time?! I'm Austin Summers!" Austin yells. "Ugh, it's Puppy, Joy, Gabrielle, Doritos, 2, 4, 7, 3." "We'll get you connected in just a moment." The phone manger says. "Hurry up--" Austin starts, before being interrupted by Maria. "I'm going to have to ask you to put down the receiver, Austin." Maria says, holding a gun with a gloved hand. "You look just like...but you're not. Who are you?" Austin demands. "I don't understand, I'm Lieutenant General Maria Collins." Maria answers. "No you're not, Maria never wears gloves to enhance her sharpshooting skills." Austin retorts. Maria gasps, before smiling. "I'm afraid I cannot take off this glove tonight." Maria says in Shiraki's voice. Austin turns around and bows his head down. "Please tell me I'm hallucinating. This can't be right." Austin mutters. "Well, you've learned too much. Time to die." Maria says, once again in Shiraki's voice. "I don't think so." Austin replies, a knife appearing in his hand. "I have a wife and daughter, and the last thing I'm going to do...is die on them." Austin turns around to slash 'Maria', who had seeming shapeshifted into Gabrielle. "Wow, you humans are gullible. You won't attack me even though you know I'm not actually your wife." 'Maria' says. "Wh-what the Hell are you?" Austin demands, before a gunshot is heard.

Daniel is in his office when the phone on his desk rings. He picks it up. "The emergency phone?" Daniel demands, before putting the phone to his ear. "We're connecting you to an 'Austin Summers'." The phone manager says. "Okay, put me through." Daniel replies. "Look, Austin, I don't have time for another daughter story." No response. "...Austin?"

Daniel kept calling Austin's name, as Shiraki places the receiver back on the stand, hanging up. "You humans don't make any sense to me...you throw away your lives for no reason." Shiraki remarks, before throwing the gun aside and walking away. "Gabrielle...Joy...I'm sorry...Daddy couldn't make it home e-early..." Austin moans, bleeding out. "Just remember...Daddy loves you..." Austin's head bows down, his eyes once again hidden. He stops moving, his own blood covering the photo of his wife and daughter.

Trevor, Charlotte, Khaldun, a bandaged Connor and Rosette were present at Austin's funeral, along with Gabrielle and Joy, both crying. Maria was present and crying as well, as Daniel looked over at the coffin being carried to a grave, looking angry and sad all at the same time. As gunshots were fired, Austin was buried in the ground. "Mommy...why are they putting dirt on Daddy?" Joy asks. "They-they're burying him, dear." Gabrielle answers, her voice cracking. "But if they put dirt on Daddy he won't be able to do all his important work. Daddy said he still had a lot of important work to do, Daddy!" Joy yells, as Gabrielle held her, sobbing. Most everyone else started crying as well, those not still shaking in sadness and rage. Marcus looked on from behind a tree, looking almost completely healed. He growled at the event. "This was Shiraki's doing...the vampire that burned my village, experimented on those I cared about...he's struck again." He looks at Charlotte and clenches his fists. "Right now, the vampire that must receive judgement the most...is Shiraki Zeshin." Marcus growls, looking upwards and remembering his sister's smile, as Joy continued calling out for Austin.

## Chapter Fourteen

*Birds were chirping happily, just as happy were the children playing in the school yards. The sky was blue, and seemed clear yet a bit cloudy, with the sun shining down. One of the little boys playing tripped over a tree branch and scraped his knee on the ground. The kid started crying, as a few other children went to help him. One boy, with black hair and blue eyes, was watching with curiosity, writing down on a note pad. He then walked into the school to inform the nearest teacher.*

*"Sir, Professor Durham." The boy said. "Hello, Adam." Durham replied with a gruff moan. "What psychotic experiment do you need my expertise for this time?" "Actually, I simply wanted to study how the body heals, and someone was hurt." Adam answers. "That's not an experiment, that's a possible hospitalization depending on who it was." Durham retorts. "It was Duane, Sir." Adam replies back. "The one with Hemophilia? Where did he hurt himself?" Durham demands. "The playground." Adam answers. Durham then runs past Adam to the playground as fast as he can, panting.*

*As Duane was recovering, the school bell rung. Everyone except Duane and Adam (Who was walking) ran to the front of the school. The Principal was standing there, with a shy little girl with white skin and hair, and red eyes, standing partially behind him. "Oh, this is what all the excitement was about?" Adam asks, really to no one. "Meet our newest student, Charlotte Nechita!" The Principal says, before looking at the school board. "Is there an 'Adam Troy Ross' here at this moment?" "Yes, I'm here, Sir." Adam answers, stepping forward. "This girl is fascinating..." "Well, you can't do anything to harm her. She's a new student, and since you're Head Boy, I thought you could help her out." The Principal retorts, before slapping Adam with a cane. "By now that is merely an annoyance, and I understood either way..." Adam says back. He walks to look at Charlotte, who shrinks away. "Now...let's show you around the school.*

Trevor, Charlotte and Khaldun had come by to talk with Gabrielle and Joy about what happened, speaking their respects while Khaldun theorized who it could be. Connor rested in a school bed with Rosette sitting on a chair next to him. Daniel and the real Maria were trying to figure out who it was, with anyone available helping them to do so. Valerie walks into a dark room. It was a stormy night, with heavy rain and no stars or even the moon visible beyond the thick storm clouds. Each flash of lightning illuminated not only the small town, but also the old room they were in. It was painted grey, with scratches and cuts all over it. The glass windows looked partially cracked. Knives, daggers, kunai, shurikens and swords were all strapped to the walls, along with other gear. Nameless' mask was off and on the desk, which had duller silver weapons on it. Nameless seemed to be sharpening them with Teufelkante. His hood was also lowered, but in these light conditions it would be impossible to make out any important facial features, except his bright blue eyes.

Valerie clears her throat, before talking. "I returned from speaking to Shiraki. The human known as 'Austin Summers' is now out of the way." Valerie says, before just barely ducking beneath a kunai that stabs into the wall behind her. "Do not forget that I am a human being, Valerie. You should know by now how capable we are." Nameless says. His voice did not sound exactly the same, but he seemed to be imitating it closely enough. "You keep our leashes so short." Valerie retorts. "Either way, we did what you asked." "Shiraki asked first. There was no reason to kill Summers. Either way, today is the day to lay a trail of breadcrumbs." Nameless says. "To kill Charlotte?" Valerie asks maliciously, needing to dodge yet another kunai, which stabs directly into a picture of Charlotte. "I'm not going to kill her. You have not been listening if you believe that." Nameless retorts. "I'm going to make Nechita wish she was dead." Nameless had turned around to glare at Valerie as he said this. Lightning crashed behind him, illuminating everything behind him. His eyes looked haunting in this light, as Valerie takes a few steps backwards.

Khaldun had left some time ago to try and work out Nameless' identity. Trevor and Charlotte were saying goodbye to Austin's family. Gabrielle seemed to be near-distraught, but remembered that they couldn't give up. Not yet...

At home, Trevor was laying on the couch. Charlotte sat next to him, bowing her head down. Neither of them spoke for a little while, then...

"Trevor..." Charlotte says quietly. "...there are so...many things I...haven't told you about myself." Trevor sits up. "I think that's true for everyone." Trevor replies. "There's always something someone just doesn't want to tell anyone else...for better or for worse." Charlotte begins to cry, and leans into Trevor. "...I can't tell you everything right now...but...I didn't have a happy childhood. When I was a little girl...I was always bullied, kicked around. There were kids who tried to stab me..." Charlotte says. "...Those kids...they at least had a real reason to attack me...a monster...you... you didn't deserve what Kevin constantly did to you." "I'm sorry...I can't believe people did that to you." Trevor replies, hugging Charlotte.

"Krincax!" Khaldun yells, walking into Krincax' lab, which looked like it was being remodeled. "What is it?! I was just reconstructing my laboratory in order to run new tests!" Krincax yells back, running into the room with a welder in his hand. Aezla was nowhere to be seen, likely still moving things around. "I came here because I, Connor and a Furni girl Rosette were nearly killed by a man called 'Nameless'." Khaldun says. "I haven't told anyone else about him yet, and thought you could help us locate him." "C-can't you see I'm busy, here?!" Krincax shrieks in response, before turning around and beginning to walk away. Khaldun groans. "We'll let you experiment on Nameless if we catch him." Khaldun says, causing Krincax to stop and turn around with an even more psychotic smile. "DId you just say 'experiment'?" Krincax gleefully demands.

Trevor and Charlotte are alerted by the sound of a knock on the door. "Uh, you can come in!" Trevor shouts. Khaldun opens the door and walks in. "Oh, it's just you. That's a relief." Trevor remarks, sighing. "Don't get too comfortable." Khaldun says. "I came here so I could warn you on who we're really up against." "What...?" Charlotte asks. "The Sabertooth Clan? They were busted out of prison a few weeks ago, by the same man that attacked me, Connor and Rosette during our mission to capture this bling vampire who was a former member of the Sabertooth Clan, Voxir." Khaldun answers. "The man who attacked us was 'Nameless', and I doubt we're done with him yet."

"No, you're not." A voice says. They turn around to see a hooded figure standing there. "By now we know what that outfit means." Khaldun says. "What do you want?" "To escort Her Majesty to Nameless, so that he can educate her." Charlotte glares at the vampire. "Why should I go to him?" She demands. "Does...A.T.R. ring a bell?" The vampire asks. Charlotte's eyes dilate and she punches the vampire down. "...Take me to him...now..." Charlotte says. "Charlotte, wait!" Trevor shouts. "No, Trevor. If you come along you'll get hurt. Besides...he only wants me." Charlotte retorts, the vampire leading her out of the house and beyond.

Charlotte walks along with the vampire, out of the neighborhood and across Killeen. At the outskirts, they reach an abandoned industrial district, which looked somewhat renovated. "This is where he is?" Charlotte demands. "This is his base?"

*It had been a month since Charlotte first joined the school. Many of the students still pelted silverware and wooden spoons at the girl, but there were a few that began to warm up to her kindness, and saw her as a person. Adam was simply intrigued. He would keep an eye on her, using his Head Boy status as an excuse. One day, Adam had found the last thing he needed.*

*Charlotte had been petting a bird, thinking about Dori, her newly adopted kitten. At that same time, she saw someone trip and hit her head against the swing. "Oh no!" Charlotte shouts, running over to help the little girl up and bring her to the hospital. Adam, curious as always, followed, tossing aside a bloodied torture device.*

*As the little girl was recovering, Charlotte was biting down on a blood bag. "Aw, that's adorable. Put that away, dear." The nurse says. Then, Charlotte bites into the blood bag. The nurse suddenly looks scared, as she runs away to inform the Principal. Adam smirks at this. "You like drinking that stuff?" Adam asks. Charlotte looks up at him and timidly nods. "You have such differing taste buds. I mean...blood tastes like steel. I've learned from when I got whacked in the jaw with a metal cane." Charlotte puts the empty blood bag down. "I-is it bad?" She asks. Adam's smirk grows into a smile. "Not to me. I don't give two sub-quantum anomalies what one does in terms of...discrimination. Yes, I'll protect whoever needs protecting, but only because I need them alive so that I may observe them." He crouches down to look into the girl's terrified eyes. "I am not a good person. And now that you have confirmed my suspicions, I want to see what makes you psychologically different from us...not physically."*

Charlotte walks into the main warehouse, backhanding the vampire away before walking into another room. The lights flickered briefly, showing that only two things were present now; a faintly red sword...and a kitten skull with the letters D, O, R and I etched onto it. Charlotte walks over to the skull and picks it up as gently as she can, crying. "S-so it is you, after all..." Charlotte says, sniffling. She puts the skull down and wipes her face, before looking down at the sword. It seemed to be a katana, but it still had the crimson-colored blade, with Japanese letters etched onto it. She couldn't read them, but decided to pick it up anyways. As soon as she did, she heard someone walk past the room she was in. "...You." Charlotte growls, before running out of the room and glaring around.

"Where are you...? Where...?" Charlotte growls. The lights flicker. Each time the hallway is illuminated, Nameless is shown, becoming closer and closer to Charlotte with each flicker. Right when Nameless is right behind Charlotte, she whirls around to slash him at the exact same time the lights flicker again, this time turning on completely. Nameless was nowhere in sight. "Coward..." Charlotte growls again, before turning around to see a door open. She walks in and starts looking around. There were pillars and abandoned work equipment, but nothing else. Then, the door closes on its own. Charlotte whirls around as the lights flicker one more time. Nameless was standing in a corner.

"You're still alive after all this time?" Charlotte demands, her eyes glowing. "You should have known it takes more than one eye to kill a human being." Nameless retorts, before running to slash Charlotte, who instinctively blocks with the katana. "Ugh! Where did you learn that?!" Charlotte growls. "I learned it from a very formidable master." Nameless replies, before bicycle-kicking Charlotte through a pillar and preparing to helicopter kick her into a desk. Charlotte barely manages to weave out of the way, but is caught by a golden chain and slammed into the desk anyway. "Gah!" Charlotte yells. "I knew you would try that, so I brought another weapon just in case." Nameless says, as Charlotte tries to leap upwards and slash Nameless, who blocks and kicks Charlotte in the stomach, sending her into the wall. As she tries to get up and slash Nameless again, he ducks underneath the sword and kicks Charlotte in the jaw to send her into a ceiling, where a bomb had been placed. It explodes, sending Charlotte to the floor.

"It's impressive. Your on-the-fly thinking is the reason my initial kick would not have been enough to get you." Nameless says, as Charlotte gets up slowly, healing, and tries to bulrush Nameless, who sidesteps and slashes Charlotte across the chest, kicking her in the back to send her to the floor again. Charlotte pushes her hand on the floor to do a one-hand stand and flip back on the ground, before slashing at Nameless again. Nameless parries, but then has to use a kunai to parry a punch from Charlotte. Nameless kicks Charlotte in the kneecap and slashes her across the face with the kunai, causing her to scream in pain. "Ah, yes...silver is a toxin to your biology." Nameless says, as Charlotte grabs a kunai off of Nameless' hip strap and slashes at him. Nameless blocks and twirls his sword to send Charlotte's to the ground, as he backflips away, using the flip to kick Charlotte backwards.

Nameless lands on his feet as Charlotte gets back up and glares at him, her cheek regenerating. "It seems we're evenly matched, both holding the advantages of the opposite requirements for a battle. You hold the physical prowess, and I hold the intellectual one." Nameless says, as he runs to slash Charlotte again. Charlotte responds by doing the same. Nameless tilts his head so that Charlotte's sword barely cuts his hood, as Charlotte tries to duck under Nameless' sword. The golden chain wraps around Charlotte and trips her up, as Charlotte slashes at the chains to get them off and leaps away. "Yes, you do seem to understand how to fight smart." Nameless states, as Charlotte hears beeping and turns to see a C4 explosive there, along with four gasoline barrels. "Guh!" Charlotte exclaims, as she quickly kicks all four barrels to Nameless, who hops, sidesteps, weaves around and kicks backwards each barrel respectively. Charlotte then kicks the bomb upwards and towards Nameless, who grabs it, before Charlotte throws the kunai at Nameless, who slashes it. The bomb then explodes. "You're smart, but that doesn't mean you can be outsmarted!" Charlotte yells.

The explosion then reaches the barrels, causing the entire structure and a little beyond to come collapsing down. Charlotte leaps across debris to land safely on her feet, as she turns and sees Nameless pushing burning rubble off of himself. The burning suit had a slash mark across the golden mask. Charlotte could see Nameless' blue eyes, him staring into Charlotte's own red eyes, the rain falling around them, with thunder rumbling and lightning crashing in the distance. "How did you survive that?!" Charlotte shouts over the rain. "Well, while I admire you thinking quickly, I thought ahead! This suit was pre-designed to be able to survive Inter-Continental Ballistic Missiles!" Nameless shouts back. "Do you remember?! Do you remember Dori?!"

*Charlotte was walking to school with a little kitten in her arms. "Don't worry, Dori. You'll love our school." Charlotte reassures the kitten sweetly. The girl who had been in the medical room runs towards Charlotte and sees the kitten. "That's so cute!" The girl shouts. "Dori is cute, isn't she, Gina?" Charlotte asks happily. She and Gina had become good friends over the months. It was happy since school in general was just painful for Charlotte. "Uh, Gina...can you please not tell Adam about Dori?" Charlotte asks. "Adam? That absolute psycho? Sure." Gina replies happily, before walking with Charlotte into the school. The school bell rings, and Charlotte and Gina are forced to part ways.*

*After the class was done, Gina walked out and towards a dark closet. She opened the door and walked into a secret room. It looked almost like a biology lab. There were bodily fluids and the like in glass jars. It mde Gina shiver, as she saw Adam stitching his most recent student lab rat shut. "Hello, Gina. Please do not vomit on my laboratory." Adam says, as he turns off the Anesthesia. "You're free to go, and your body should be all fixed up now that my experiment has concluded." Adam says. The traumatized student runs away as fast as he can, whimpering. "What is it, Gina?" Adam asks. "I-it's about Charlotte...she brought a kitten named 'Dori' to school. I thought I should tell you because we all know you'd just find out anyway." Gina answers. "Interesting, to say the least." Adam replies. "Please don't attack Dori! You have no idea what would happen--" Gina starts, before being interrupted by Adam. "I already have a theory, and I am going to test it. In the meantime...keep my jarred organs company, won't you?" Adam says, as he closes the door behind him, locking Gina in. "NO! CHARLOTTE! GET OUT OF HERE! HE'S GOING TO...to..." Gina trails off, as her eyes dilate. "Wh-what have I just d-done...?" Gina whimpers.*

The lightning flashed again. Charlotte thought for a moment. "You remember Dori...?" Charlotte demands. "...You are Adam...aren't you?" "I am one hundred percent Adam Troy Ross in my mind, body and soul." Nameless, or rather, Adam answers. "And I have put my soul to the use of killing you." Before Adam can slash again, Trevor and Khaldun arrive on the scene. "Charlotte!" Trevor yells. "Your significant other..." Nameless remarks, before sending golden throwing star at Trevor, lodging it in his shoulder. "Agh!" Trevor yells, as Nameless throws down a smoke bomb, seemingly vanishing into thin air. "Was that Nameless?" Trevor asks. "Yes...his real name is Adam Troy Ross...he was the worst bully..." Charlotte answers, as Khaldun teleports them home, before leaving to find Krincax.

*Charlotte was warily walking through the school, wondering where Gina was. She had thought they would play with Dori in secret. Suddenly, Charlotte is grabbed by a boy who slams her to the ground and starts dancing hysterically, laughing. "I don't really care for racism, so can you please stop, Rory? It just makes you look ridiculous, anyways." Adam says. Rory shrugs and grabs Charlotte to hold her at the wall. "Marco, get the kitten, Dori." Adam orders. Marco then grabs Dori and holds her up to Adam, who, holding a red pen, smiles maliciously. "NO!" Charlotte screams. "This is for my research, Charlotte..." Adam retorts, as he drives the pen into Dori's skull and uses it to write out the letters D O R I, puncturing into the squealing kitten's head each time. With each screech of agony, Charlotte cries harder, screams louder. Adam seemed to be enjoying himself, as he rips the bloodied pen out of his hand the last time. Charlotte bows her head down, as Adam tosses the pen away with a casual shrug. "Let's see what happens next." Adam says, Rory and Marco looking at him with horrified expressions. Marco seemed on the brink of collapse from what he did, his hands covered in blood. Charlotte started muttering something under her breath. "I'm sorry, what?" Adam asks. "The world is better off..." Charlotte whispers shakily. "Just a little louder." Adam taunts. Charlotte glares directly into Adam's eyes. "The w-world is better of WITHOUT PEOPLE LIKE YOU!"*

*Charlotte bashes her head backwards to paste Rory's against the wall, hiding the ordeal with her own head and hair, which was now deep red. Adam takes a sip of juice as Marco is horizontally bisected by a skateboard. Marco's last conscious thoughts are directed to cursing Adam's name, who just gives him a casual glance, the blue eyes being distorted to glowing from Marco's perspective, as everything went black. Charlotte then runs to Adam to rip his leg off, before using a telephone to bash his pen-arm off. She then grabs a lighter from within the desk, forces Adam to the ground and bashes the lighter onto his right eye, which Adam closes just in time. Charlotte then throws Adam across the room to slam him into the wall, cracking it and nearly shattering the window. Charlotte then grabs Dori's corpse and holds it to her chest, falling to her knees and sobbing.*

*"Does that mean you're done?" Adam asks Charlotte, who glares evilly at him. "YOU'RE DEAD!" Charlotte screams at the boy, who shrugs with his remaining soldier. "Maybe, maybe not. Either way...Gina told me about your kitten." Adam replies, Charlotte's eyes dilating as she grabs a piece of glass and walks out of the room. Adam smiles, and throws the lighter onto an exposed heater pipe, causing it to explode, obliterating the room and lighting the school on fire.*

*Charlotte walks through the school, using all her senses to hunt down Gina, who was sobbing hysterically as she banged on the locked trapdoor. Charlotte hears the noise and kicks the door down, knocking Gina into a wall and severing her tendons with metal shards.*

*Gina stares at Charlotte's cold eyes with a terrified expression. Charlotte walks over to Gina, growling. Gina then adjusts her eyes and sees Dori's corpse. "Oh, my G-God..." Gina whimpers. Charlotte glares directly down at Gina, who stares directly up. "I-I'm sorry...I'm so s-sorry..." Gina pleads, her voice cracking. Then her head flies clean off, the glass shard covered in blood. The fire worked to cauterize the wounds, as Charlotte walked away to kill everyone else in the school.*

*The Principal was on multiple phones at once. "Yes, yes! I need both of you here! All three of you, actually! Police, ambulances, fire department! My school's been destroyed! I need you services imme--" The door had been forced down. "diately...I'll have to call you back, but still come!" The Principal finishes, before hanging up all three phones and looking down at Charlotte, who was covered in blood and bowing her head down to the extent that only her glowing red irises were visible underneath her bloodied hair. He could see the dead kitten, along with the shard of glass. "Y-you're a vampire, correct? Did you...did you carve that--" The Principal starts, his vocal cords being severed at by the glass shard at the words 'carve that'. Charlotte walks away and out of the school, as sirens are soon heard.*

Trevor was wincing a bit as Charlotte slowly lodged the throwing star out of his shoulder. "That really hurts." Trevor moans. "Hopefully it wont still hurt when it's out." Charlotte replies, as she manages to get the throwing star out and instantly puts a cloth on the wound to keep it from fountaining blood. "AAAAAGH!" Trevor screams, as he gets a hold of himself and stops. "I can't believe the jerk just decided to lodge this thing in my arm the moment we meet!" Trevor yells. "Wait, it's...hollow." Charlotte remarks, as she breaks the throwing star in half and sees a folded up piece of paper in her hand. "Origami?" Trevor asks, as Charlotte begins to carefully unfold it. Once it is completely unfolded, Charlotte notices writing. "It's a note, a list." Charlotte remarks. When she reads it, her eyes dilate. "T-Trevor...I think you...you need to look at this." Charlotte says shakily. "What? What is it, Char?" Trevor asks, as Charlotte hands the list to Trevor, who reads it. With each name he looks at, he sees the time of death, place of death, cause of death...and killer.

Trevor looks up at Charlotte with terrified eyes. "Th-this is just manipulation f-from Nameless...r-right?" Trevor asks. Charlotte shakes her head, beginning to cry. Trevor looks at Charlotte, horrified, before backing away. "No, Trevor! I've changed!" Charlotte pleas, as Trevor, whimpering, runs out of the room and house, across the neighborhood, passing everyone without so much as a glance except forwards. He ends up passing a figure with glowing blue eyes in a cloak, barely noticing said figure. "*I c-can't believe she...k-killed all those people!*" Trevor thinks to himself, beginning to cry. Charlotte was now sobbing on the floor, as she looked upwards to see a message written in blood above the doorframe...

...so it begins.

## Chapter Fifteen

*Night had just fallen, no one could be seen around the entire city. It almost seemed as if everyone had just vanished. But the truth was known. A school had just been burned down, and reports of a little girl killing everyone she saw had appeared and skyrocketed in quick succession. Two men in business suits walked over to a hospital and walked in.*

*"You know, I didn't think that such a sweet looking girl could've become a murderous psychopath." One of the men says. "Yeah, we should've been prepared earlier. Regardless, we're here." The other man replies, as they walk over to a hospital door and open it to walk into a dark room with someone sitting in a wheelchair at the back of the room.*

*"So this is the only survivor of the incident?" The first man asks. "Yeah, and even he's pretty banged up." The second man answers, as the boy in the wheelchair glares at them from under his black hair with bright blue eyes. He seemed to be missing an arm and leg, his face almost completely covered by shadow. He begins to tap his fingers on the armrest.*

*"Can you tell us your name?" The first man asks. The boy continues tapping. "Don't be shy, we can help you." The second man says. They hear the boy tapping and begin to listen. It sounded like a pattern, almost like... "This kid knows Morse Code?" The second man demands, before the listen. The letters A, D, A, M, , T, R, O, Y, , R, O, S and S were tapped out. "Your name is Adam Troy Ross?" The first man asks, to which the boy, Adam, nods.*

*"The psychopath?" The second man asks. Adam seems to smile. "Well, I was born without the Temporoparietal Junction, the part of the the brain that discerns right from wrong, yet I can still feel emotion, just like both of you." Adam replies, shocking and scaring the men. "How the Hell is this kid this smart?!" The first man demands.*

*All the while, Adam thought about how his experiment was a success, and thought it would do him good to live a normal life from here on...*

"Felix! Felix, come in!" Daniel yells at his radio. He seemed to be strapped into a chair in a burning jet, which appears to have crash-landed in an open field. "Yes? Is that you, Daniel?" Khaldun answers. "Uh, yes! I need your help with something." Daniel says. "What is it?" Khaldun demands. "I was carrying the HSFR, or 'High-Speed Fusion Reactor', with me when I was shot out of the sky by what looked like a jet from what I saw!" Daniel answers. "Maybe it was REICH."

"Why would REICH want a nuclear weapon? They want to take over the world, not destroy it." Khaldun replies. "Well, whatever! Help me get this thing over to Killeen, it's UV rays could be useful in fighting the Sabertooth Clan." Daniel says. "Alright, then..." Khaldun answers with a sigh.

Charlotte was sitting against the wall, curled up into a ball and crying silently. "Adam knew..." Charlotte whispers shakily. "...h-he knew about it. H-he knew I was with Trevor...but h-how?" Charlotte asks herself. There could only be one way. Someone she met knew how close she was to Trevor...like her school. Adam, he would try to hide in plain sight, living under a false name. How could she have not thought of this? Charlotte gets up, and prepares to walk to not Reaper High, but towards another school, one closed since 1965...

*A man in a business suit, with jet black hair and bright blue eyes, wearing an eyepatch over his left eye and a trilby on his head, was walking through a semi-modern tunnel. As he pressed a button on the door, he walked in, and saw people wearing relatively normal clothing, with those handling dangerous equipment or substances having a more generic appearance for a scientist.*

*"Hello, Mr. Ross." One of the older-looking scientists greets the man, Adam. "My daughter has wanted to know much of you!" "Heh...am I really comparable to Einstein?" Adam asks. "Where is your daughter? I would like to meet her." "Right this way, then." The scientist replies. "Meet my lovely heart and joy, Emilie Wegscheider."*

*Emilie was a somewhat pale woman, with chestnut hair and warm brown eyes. Her smile, too, was warm and her eyes were kind. Adam could tell from looking at her that she must have not been present during the War. Adam already felt affection towards her, but he wanted to see for himself if he was right, if she was truly a kind person.*

*"Guten Nueben, Emilie Wegscheider. Ich heiße Adam Troy Ross." Adam greets Emilie politely, calculating his own voice to try and win her over. Emilie giggles and puts a hand on Adam's cheek. "Du hast einen schönen Namen. Ich habe gehört, Sie waren ein Psychopath, aber ich kann Zuneigung von Ihnen fühlen." Adam smiles. "Deine Mutation ... bist du ein Empath?" He then asks. "Ja mein Liebling." Emilie answers with a sweet smile, until being interrupted by a scientist. "Speak English, please! We don't tolerate that language after dein Führer!" Emilie's eyelids droop, as Adam looks offended. "Please, this is America, the land of freedom! Let the monarchies of Europe remove freedom of dialect at most!" Adam retorts.*

Nameless walks through the dark alleyways of the city, lamenting what had happened. At that moment, he hears chattering and leans into a wall to listen in. The words, however, did not sound Earthly, yet he guessed as best he could. "Acribaf ni ieclun subinam ni sumaebah muc metus son." One voice says. "They are aiming to recover a nuclear weapon..." Adam thinks. "Mae erarap te erecaf sitsetop non is, metua diuq?" another voice demands in a questioning tone. "Irevom ebru ba mutepmi ednied." The first voice replies. (They plan to attack Killeen if they cannot acquire the nuclear weapon...) Adam guesses. Marcus, who had heard the same voices, starts to run away, which catches an alien's attention. "Tnureiortnibus!" The alien screams, causing the other ones to come after Marcus, who grabs the closest alien by the arm. "You will not harm humanity's chances of survival, you devilish beasts." Marcus says, but nothing happens to the alien. "Wh-what?!" Marcus shouts, before the alien throws him to the ground and splits its mouth open to send a spiked tongue at Marcus' neck. Marcus lets the tongue bite him and forces some of his blood into the alien creature before kicking it off and leaping back, forcing his own blood to explode inside the creature, causing it to collapse over and for its yellow biolights to fade out. Marcus then sends blood into his legs to run away as fast as he can, healing his neck along the way.

Trevor had been running for so long, until he finds Rosette's place and walks inside, seeing that it not serves ice-cream as well. "Welcome to my shop, Trevor." Rosette says, smiling, then seeing Trevor's expression. "What's wrong?" "...it's none of your business." Trevor answers, earning an exasperated expression from Rosette. "Anyways, what ice-cream are you serving?" "Well, currently only vanilla." Rosette answers. "I guess I'll have that, then..." Trevor says halfheartedly. A minute later, Rosette puts a vanilla ice-cream cone on the counter in front of him. Trevor begins to eat it slowly and unenergetically. "Did you lose your spirit?" Rosette asks. "I know I shouldn't be trying to force you to act happy, but I liked it when your weren't so defeated." "...you're better off not knowing, Rosette." Trevor answers at last. "I know I probably--...wait...where's Charlotte?"

A pause, then Trevor slams a dollar onto the counter, gets up and walks out of the store without another word.

Daniel was in a truck convoy with Khaldun and Connor. "Are we absolutely sure this is safe?" Connor asks. "Yeah. We have Maria if anything goes wrong." Daniel answers, as they begin to drive towards Killeen.

About half-way through the drive... "Hey, Felix...you haven't told us what you're doing on this planet yet, have you?" Daniel asks. "I was sent here when our own planet was destroyed, and have been trying to protect Earth ever since." Khaldun answers, as the truck's radar detects something in the air.

"The Hell? This signal looks weird." Daniel demands, poking his head outside to see an alien-looking jet flying above and behind them. "There! That's the one who shot me down! Who is he?!" Khaldun pokes his head out as well and sees the 'jet'. His eyes widen. "It's a scout! We need to destroy it as fast as possible!" Khaldun answers, taking out his pistol and firing at the 'jet', which maneuvers around the lasers with ease. "The Hell do you mean by a scout?!" Daniel shouts. "No time to explain!" Khaldun shouts back. "Who cares? We need to take it out, whatever it is!" Connor interjects, before turning his hand into a blade and jumping off the trailer to slash at the ship, doing no damage to it whatsoever. "Dammit!" Connor yells, as the ship starts firing what look like lasers at the convoy, creating explosions around them which shake the mountain they're on. A REICH helicopter flies over them.

"That is not a human aircraft." Reinhardt remarks sternly. "Well, it seems to be distracting them. We'll have time to catch them and take the HSFR with us to create our side project." The helicopter pilot replies, as he tries to scan the 'jet'. Reinhardt takes out a walkie-talkie thing and speaks into it. "Tobias, we've reached some complications. We'll send a flare if a retreat is required." Reinhardt says. "Understood, Mein Fuhrer." Tobias answers, as Reinhardt hangs up.

Daniel, in between two snaps, notices the helicopter. "We've got company!" Daniel yells, as the rest of the convoy open fire on the 'jet', failing to penetrate odd hexagonal sphere-shaped energy shields around it. Daniel picks up a communicator and connects with the helicopter. "This is Major Daniel Cross speaking! Identify yourself!" Daniel shouts into the communicator. "We've already met, but if you've already forgotten me my name is Reinhardt." Reinhardt replies. "Due to the fact that you are currently occupied, we will be taking the HSFR for ourselves." Daniel growls at this, as black military cars with red stripes on them drive to box the truck convoy in. The cars closest to the main truck open their roofs so that REICH agents can pop out, and point their railguns into Khaldun and Daniel's faces. "Ugh!" Khaldun exclaims, before firing at the REICH agent aiming at him, the REICH agent dodging closely and firing at Khaldun, who dodges and lets the blast hit the side of the mountain, blowing large boulders off and causing them to fall towards them, making everyone try to maneuver around them, which causes a REICH car to crash into a convoy truck, exploding them both. The boulders bounce harmlessly off the alien spacecraft, which continues to fire at everyone below.

Daniel, annoyed, snaps his fingers to blast the REICH soldier aiming at him away, before he hears something and sees another REICH soldier attempting to melt the trailer from the truck with a heat laser rifle. "Connor!" Daniel yells, alerting Connor to the REICH soldier's presence as he grabs him with tendrils and holds him out over the road. "You're going to tell me everything I want to--" He is cut off as a laser from the alien spacecraft vaporizes the REICH soldier. "I do hope you take better care of the HSFR than your do your captives, Jew." Reinhardt remarks, as another REICH soldier appears behind the trailer and fires three half-cylinder shaped devices onto the back of it, before pressing a button on his rifle and shorting out the electronic lock on the trailer door to burst it open.

"So, you think REICH has the best of everything, huh?" Daniel asks jokingly, as Maria, in a military biker's outfit, rides out of the trailer and into the REICH soldier on a motorcycle, causing his car to flip upside down and explode as she scrapes back around to join the convoy. The alien spacecraft continues firing, as they near a part of the road blockaded by REICH. Tobias spots them and holds out his hand to begin stopping all the vehicles in their tracks except the helicopter...and the alien spacecraft, which fires a yellow, cone-shaped beam down to send a tall, muscular, pitch black being with yellow lights adorning it, onto the burning road. "Definitely not human." The helicopter pilot remarks, as Reinhardt has the helicopter circle the area. "So, the rumors are true. I had believed Khaldun, though seeming alien, could perhaps be human. But now we know for certain...extraterrestrial life does indeed exist among us...though perhaps not for much longer."

The alien stands before them. Soldiers of both sides point their guns at it, as Daniel walks out to hold out his fingers in a pre-snapping gesture at said alien. "Who are you and what do you want?!" Daniel demands, earning no response, as the alien takes out a black metal spear and fires a yellow laser from it, which Maria blocks by leaping in front of Daniel and throwing a decoy doll at the laser to have it be the thing disintegrated, which allows her to leap across and end up on the other side to kick a REICH soldier off the face of the mountain with a scream of panic from said REICH soldier. Daniel then snaps his fingers to blast the alien with a massive explosion of purple flames.

A few seconds pass. As the flames subside, the alien is shown perfectly fine. "Damn, it's that tough?" Daniel growls, before snapping again, and again, and again and again and again. Each explosion stronger and more contained than the last. At the final explosion, the alien creature's skin seems slightly melted, thought only slightly. It steps forward and stomps on the ground, shaking the part of the road enough to crack and break apart said road segment. Most everyone falls to their deaths. Khaldun, Connor, Daniel, Maria and Tobias had survived, as Maria chases Tobias away, Tobias having stolen the HSFR. The other three stare down the alien, as Khaldun things of some way to hurt it. "There has to be a weak point..." Connor slashes at the alien a bunch of times, not doing very much. "...a part of its body we can exploit--" Khaldun sees the alien's chest. "Right. I was taught this should work... Connor! Daniel! Get out of the way, now!" Khaldun yells. "Why the Hell--" Daniel starts. "Just do it!" Khaldun roars, before firing a laser through the alien's chest, heart. Connor and Daniel had gotten out of the way, as the alien screams and unleashes yellow energy from itself, before collapsing, dimming.

"As fun as this was," Reinhardt begins. " we still have a job to do. Rule Number One of War, never leave the enemy with the spoils." Reinhardt finishes, firing a blast at them to send them down the mountain along with an avalanche.

## Chapter Sixteen

Daniel opens his eyes and looks down to see more mountain range and forest below him. "Woah!" Daniel shouts. "Don't worry, we're...safe for now." Maria says from above. Daniel looks up to see Maria grabbing Khaldun's bionic hand, as Khaldun was being held by some of Connor's arm tendrils, the other tendrils holding on to the mountain. "Ugh. Is everyone okay down there?!" Connor shouts. "I'll be okay when we're back on top of the mountain and not dangling off the side!" Daniel shouts back. "I'll get us down! Hold on!" Khaldun yells, before teleporting them all to the bottom of the mountain. Daniel gets on his knees and lets out a breath. "We'll have to report this to Headquarters." Maria says. "Not just REICH, the creature too." Maria then helps Daniel up before taking him to a military jeep, driving away as Khaldun and Connor look up the mountain, thinking about what just happened.

The men who had been conversing with Adam were sitting in wheelchairs at an asylum. The asylum owner walks towards them, looking intrigued. "What are you two doing here?" She asks. "We-we're here because we talked to that k-kid." One of the men answers. She shrugs and takes them in.

*Adam was resting in bed with Emilie, who was sleeping peacefully with a smile on her face. Adam could not help but smile as well. Then he heard the door open and turned to see a little boy, his son, walking into the room. "Hello, Aiden." Adam says drowsily. "Hi Daddy. Is Mommy awake?" Aiden asks. Adam shakes his head. "Let Mommy sleep, Aiden. She had a very busy day." Adam answers. Aiden nods and begins to walk out, before pausing. "Daddy..." Aiden starts. "Yes, Aiden?" Adam replies, already knowing what Aiden was going to ask. "...why is your eye burnded?" Aiden finishes. Adam thinks...before coming up with a half-truth answer. "I was hurt by a girl from my school days named Charlotte. I don't really mind the scar, and have put it behind me." Adam answers. "Why did she hurt you?" Aiden asks. Adam pauses for a little while, before finally answering. "She thought I was mean to her cat, Dori." Adam looks, and sees that Aiden has fallen asleep. "Family...not exactly what I ever expected..." Adam remarks, before laying back down and falling asleep.*

Trevor was walking around the city, looking through the book he had taken with him, a notebook that was dedicated to storing information about the Killeen and other cities. He keeps reading until he finds the page he was looking for. "The old laboratory, abandoned after a failed attempt to create an 'ultimate life-form'..." Trevor murmurs, pulling in slightly from the confused looks he was receiving from some of the civilians. This 'old laboratory' was just around the corner. He turns and sees it. The lab was indeed old. The paint was scratched to reveal rusted steel-concrete walls. The gates, too, were rusted and falling down. The glass windows were cracked, stained and fogged. The cameras on the lab exterior looked outdated. Trevor decides to walk to the lab, desperate to learn any secrets it may have to defeating the Sabertooth Clan.

Charlotte walked over to the burned, destroyed, run-down school that she once called home. She remembers bringing Dori here the moment she walks onto the precinct, remembering Gina and her promise to Charlotte...and her apology for breaking it. Charlotte had killed her friends at this school...and now she had to revisit the wretched place to find answers from the man she despised most.

She began by walking down the hallway, remembering killing her friends and bullies alike here. That boy who had gotten her ice-cream...his head laying on the ground. She continues onward, remembering dismembering the nurse. She then walks into the room where it all began. She saw nothing, except that the burned walls, floor and ceiling were stained with dry blood. She sees a pen resting on the desk, and a plastic phone. She walks over to pick up the tool used to start this cycle of violence when the phone rings. She rips the receiver off the pedestal and puts it to her ear. "Adam?" Charlotte growls. No response. Instead, all the lights flicker. Charlotte is shocked into the hallway, seeing the lights flicker in a forward pattern. She thinks she briefly sees Adam standing at the intersection during a flicker, though it vanished so quickly that it could have just been her imagination...

...even though she already knew it wasn't.

Connor walked over to Rosette's shop and walked in, ringing the bell as all customers did. "Hi! Welcome to--" Rosette starts as she turns around and sees Connor, stopping and seeing the bandage on his head. "Connor, what happened?" Rosette asks in a concerned tone, walking over to Connor and gently touching the bandage. "I guess we can...talk about it here." Connor answers without answering. Rosette puts a hand to her mouth and giggles a bit. "Are you asking me on a date?" She asks heartily, beginning to blush. "Uh...I guess?" Connor replies, as Rosette smiles and begins to make Connor a meal.

Trevor was walking along the dark corridors, seeing the lights still somewhat on. Had someone been using this laboratory recently? Trevor pondered on this as he saw a door that was a bit cracked open. "Finally, something I don't have to worry about bringing this joint down over." Trevor remarks with a sigh of relief. He pushes the door open and sees a somewhat advanced lab room with folders cramped into every bookshelf imaginable, while gadgets and tools (Along with an old computer) were scattered all over the tables. Trevor walks over to the computer and turns it on. The loading time was slow, but he eventually landed on special files.

TEST NO. 6521: CREATION

-THE LIFE-FORM IS PLAUSIBLE, YET IT WILL REQUIRE A WILLING DONOR. NO ONE VOLUNTEERED TO DONATE GENETIC DATA, AND THE PROJECT WAS SHUT DOWN BY THE GOVERNMENT WHEN THE COLD WAR ENDED.                                                                                                                                                                                   -END LOG

"What happened here?" Trevor asks silently, before searching through more files to find out what was going on. He was half-way through a file on DNA testing when he heard a clatter and puts the folder down gently. "Wh-who's there?" Trevor demands, getting up and creating a small Eletero disc. "I really need to name this attack." Trevor thinks, as he walks across the room and through the next door. He saw no one else there, and decided to walk into a Decagon-shaped symbol on the floor, which seemed to have elaborate DNA-strand patterns interwoven in and around the Decagon. For each point, there was a Decagonal pillar. "What in the actual name of...?" Trevor remarks, before hearing a sinister voice behind him. "Hello, Trevor Dillard. Where's your girlfriend?" Trevor whirls around and sees Shiraki standing there, holding one hand over his new eyepiece, which resembled safety goggles with the same color set as the 'monocle'. The line below Shiraki's left eye had vanished as well. "No..." Trevor finally lets out. "...this isn't happening...this is not happening..."

Shiraki smiles maliciously. "But it is...I needed a human to test my new creation on, and who better than you?" Shiraki replies, before taking out a plastic cylindrical container, inside it a gooey black substance. "Is that a Symbiote?" Trevor demands. Shiraki nearly drops the container out of laughter. "No! The Hell are you talking about?!" Shiraki roars back. "This is the 'Ultimate Life-Form' this damn lab of humans was trying to create. Watch, as you face off against a past foe who is better in every way and completely under my control..." At these words, Shiraki opens the container's lid and turns it upside-down, dumping the substance on the ground as it immediately starts writhing, changing and growing. It starts to rip itself apart and form back together as Marcus, only everything was shades of grey except the bright red, glowing pupil-less eyes. It sniffs at Trevor's wounds and turns its hand into a blade of black blood, before running to slash Trevor in that exact area, causing him to scream.

"It will track any fresh blood from you, human." Shiraki states, as Trevor sends the disc at the creature, who instantly regenerates and slashes Trevor across the chest. "Gah! I thought you needed a brain stem to regenerate!" Trevor yells. Shiraki chuckles. "This creature is essentially an Amoeba. It's a pile of goo that can rearrange its own genetic structure to copy the appearance and abilities of whatever I program it to the best it can." Shiraki replies, before Trevor is kicked in the kneecap by the creature and thrown across the room with claws sharp enough to tear through his flesh, causing him to bleed out more and more. "Charlotte...I need you to...no...I need you to..." Trevor tries to think, but he can't. He truly did not know what he wanted anymore. That lack of focus got him slashed again, almost taking his right arm off. Shiraki grins evilly at the ordeal.

"You fought an alien?" Rosette curiously asks. "Like, from space?" "Yeah..." Connor replies, taking another bite from his ice-cream. "...and it nearly killed us all." "Well, you're still alive, aren't you?" Rosette cooes, rubbing Connor on his wound. At that moment, Connor began to feel something enter the wound, and it began to heal rapidly. "Wha...?" Connor gasps, confused. Rosette smiles at him and grasps his hand. "I know a park we could go to." Rosette says. "Oh..." Connor exclaims, now blushing. She giggles and begins to pull him to the park.

Charlotte continues her walk around the school, still remembering everything that had happened here. That time she helped a young boy fly a kite...or worked with a girl on an art project...or cut open Gina's throat. Charlotte turned to look at the secret room, and began to cry. "...Maybe...it's good for Trevor...to stay away from me..." Charlotte remarks, her voice cracking. Then, she remembers why she is here, and continues to walk, towards a staircase.

The floor of the lab room was smeared with blood. Trevor, dying, was sitting against the wall, breathing in a labored manner. "Charlotte...p-please help me..." Trevor thinks. "...please d-don't kill me..." Trevor begins to cry. The creature walks closer to him, as Shiraki smiles psychotically. Then, Trevor looks up and notices something odd...the creature was also attacking the ground. "Wait..." Trevor thinks, before taking out a vial and pouring blood from his wounds into it. He waves it around and, as he thought, the creature follows the scent. Shiraki notices, but is too late when Trevor throws the vial at Shiraki. It explodes and spills all of Trevor's blood on the vampire scientist...

...all of Trevor's fresh blood.

The creature leaps at Shiraki to slash him. Shiraki, with no other choice, draws his sword and slashes, cutting the creature in half as the two halves are then covered in red fire and disintegrated. "There--" Shiraki starts, before being interrupted by Trevor running up to and throwing an Eletero disc at him. "Bokyaku no Uzekara!" Trevor yells. "What, does that mean 'disc' in Japanese?!" Shiraki shouts. "Oh, wait it probably does--" Shiraki is cut off from his thoughts as he is bisected by the Bokyaku. Shiraki stumbles back and growls at Trevor, before pointing his hand at him to fire Fazaviata at Trevor, blasting through the lab and catching many onlookers' attention...including a man wearing a grey-orange hoodie and silver sunglasses.

Rosette and Connor had both also noticed the blast. "What?" Rosette exclaims, as Connor begins to manifest his suit. "Something's up!" Connor yells, as he begins to grab onto the buildings to swing towards the explosion like Spiderman. Rosette begins to follow as well.

Charlotte sees the explosion too, but does not pay it much mind as she has no knowledge on it. She continues up the stairs and kicks down the door to the booth and walks onto the roof, seeing Adam standing there, waiting for her.

"Did you hesitate at all when you killed them?" Adam asks, his voice quivering a bit.

*Through his mind, flashed his family, Aiden wearing a 5th Birthday hat, Emilie holding their baby daughter, torn nearly to shreds and impaled by poles. Adam held them all in the rain, and began to cry.*

"Wh-what?" Charlotte asks. "You mean you do not remember them..." Adam remarks. "You only solidify my hatred for you." Adam draws his sword and turns to face Charlotte. "Whatever I did to you...I'm sorry. But p-please...please stop all this." Charlotte pleads. "You fall on deaf ears. This...is about far more than simple revenge." Adam replies coldly, before throwing a kunai at Charlotte, who barely blocks it with her sword and runs to slash Adam, who blocks with his own sword as they begin to fall towards the ground. Adam throws a golden hook chain up to catch them on the roof as the crash through the window and into the Principal's Office.

Charlotte quickly gets up and looks around. Adam had vanished already. She growls and begins to slash glass cases apart, before hearing Adam's voice from seemingly all around.

"I've studied you since that encounter, Charlotte Nechita. And now I know everything..." Adam states, as Charlotte sees a shadow moving across a glass case and throws a rock at it, shattering the glass case and revealing nothing actually behind it. "...who you love, who you trust...and of course...who you've hurt." Adam continues, as Charlotte attacks another glass case. "Do you know how easy it was to turn Trevor away from you? How easy it will be to turn this world against you?" Adam speaks on, as Charlotte screams and kicks the floor to try and find him. "You are no hero, you are a mass murderer, worse than any other in history...and I'm going to show them that..." Adam says as he appears behind a glass case behind Charlotte. "I am going to show this whole world, that every single thing you touch...dies." Adam finishes, as Charlotte, enraged, runs to slash at Adam, who blocks with an odd move that Charlotte feels she has seen before. She slashes again, cutting Adam across the chest and sending him backwards to the floor.

Charlotte notices tape on Adam's sword hand and runs to rip the mask off, revealing Principal Meneo Rossini behind the mask. "Wh-what...? N-no... NO!" Charlotte screams. Then, she hears Adam's voice from a speaker. "I told you this, Charlotte. Everything you touch...dies."

One eighth of Killeen was completely obliterated. Dust covered the buildings like a fog and fires had been started. A hand that was poking out of the rubble starts to twitch, before the arm begins to move as well. Trevor slowly and painfully crawls out of the rubble, groaning. He looks upward and sees Shiraki standing there, giving him an evil glare combined with a psychopath smile. "Ah, you're still alive, eh?" Shiraki asks sadistically. Trevor doesn't answer, and feels something in his side. He realizes blood is pouring out of his mouth and turns to see a lead pipe driven into his side. "G-gu-guh!" Trevor stutters, as he feels increasingly lightheaded.

"Trevor!" Connor shouts, as Shiraki quickly tilts his arm to block a slash from the rag-covered boy. "You came to save your damn friend, did you?" Shiraki demands, as he slashes at Connor to make him step back. He then quickly dodges something invisible and runs to slash at Rosette, who was glaring at him. "Come on, then. Both of you can try your best to combat me." Shiraki states. Then, he is smacked from behind by a rogue cross. "Agh! Not..." Shiraki exclaims, turning around to see Marcus standing there. "Allow me to purge the world of this nightmare!" Marcus yells. Shiraki growls, and is suddenly gone in the blink of an eye. Rosette and Connor run to help Trevor up, as Marcus clenches his fists and begins to walk away. "*This world is going to Hell...real soon...*" Marcus thinks, remembering the aliens he had fought.

It was midnight by now. REICH soldiers walked out onto the roof of a rather large building as a helicopter flew down onto it. When the door opened, Reinhardt, Tobias and a REICH soldier not wearing a helmet, which revealed brown hair and yellow eyes stepped out of the helicopter. Everyone saluted at once, as Reinhardt eyed them all. "I was to meet the leader of ISIS here for a transaction...it seems they were delayed, given that this was the time we agreed upon. Is the trap set?" Reinhardt says and asks. A soldier nods. "Good. It seems we will have to take over this city first--" "And threaten my plans?" Nameless interjects. Reinhardt whirls around to see the Golden Mask Killer standing atop a higher building, glaring down at him. "This city's serial killer..." Reinhardt groans before taking out a futuristic hilt. "You said REICH opposes your plans, Nameless?" Reinhardt demands. "Indeed. I need this world free and my enemies alive." Nameless answers. "And guess what," Reinhardt replies coldly, aiming his arm at Nameless. " I could not care less."

Reinhardt fires a yellow laser from his arm at Nameless, who seemingly makes no effort to dodge as the laser hits and destroys the building. "Be on guard, men--" Reinhardt starts, before a REICH soldier is strangled by a chain at blinding speeds. The other soldiers start to fire in all directions they can to try and get Nameless. Each one falls in an odd, unique way. Two soldiers are crashed into each other by a kunai, as another few are tied together as they fall down the building to their deaths.

Reinhardt quickly activates his sword to block a slash from Nameless, who uses his other hand to draw a Daisho blade and slash at Reinhardt's arm with it. Reinhardt quickly leaps backwards to escape the slash and keeps firing at Nameless, who dodges each and every blast except one that slightly burns his hood. Nameless throws a kunai at Reinhardt, who dodges and lets it hit the helicopter's fuel tank. Reinhardt realizes this and rips the fuel tank out before throwing it at Nameless, who slices it in half and kicks the exploding part of the fuel tank at Reinhardt, who takes off his cloak and throws it at the fuel tank to cover it up as it explodes. Reinhardt leaps back from the shockwave and fires a blast from his foot to get back on the roof, quickly evading a chain from Nameless that then wraps around Reinhardt's legs and a pole, forcing the leader of REICH to the rooftop in a crash.

Nameless walks over to Reinhardt and places his sword against the crime lord's head. "You die here, Warren Schnitzel." Nameless says. Reinhardt chuckles at this. "Then I'm taking you to Hell with me." Reinhardt replies before taking out a bomb stick and pressing the button on it. Nameless hears beeping and begins to leap backwards just as half the building, the half Nameless and Reinhardt were on, explodes in a violent fragmentation. Nameless quickly adjusts and leaps from rubble to rubble, leaping to slash Reinhardt from behind. Reinhardt notices and ducks, placing a bomb on Nameless' back. Nameless then slashes at the bomb to not only send it in the air, but cut the red wire in just the right way that the current resumes right when it is at Reinhardt's face, Reinhardt quickly blocking with his arm as another explosion wipes out the rest of the building's upper half.

Reinhardt tries to look through the flames and sees a Kunai. Before he can react to it another Kunai follows, along with a golden chain that connects the two. They fly in just the right way to wrap around Reinhardt and bind his arms. Nameless appears from the smoke with his Daisho, about to slash at Reinhardt's neck. Reinhardt quickly kicks upward at Nameless' jaw, just barely scraping the mask as Nameless ducks and slashes at Reinhardt's leg before landing on the building's remains. Reinhardt growls and a blade springs out from his bionic arm to cut the golden chains off. Reinhardt then throws laser knives at Nameless, who backflips and cartwheels around the knives, at times preforming other such somersaults. Nameless then throws another set of chains at Reinhardt. Reinhardt destroys the chains as the kunai are drawn to his arms and cut through his tendons. "Gah! You!" Reinhardt roars as he falls backwards. Nameless runs to continue the fight, seeing Reinhardt be caught in a jet. "Guten Neuben...Warren Schnitzel." Nameless remarks, as he watches the jet fly into the night.

Right then he hears growling behind him, and turns to face something.

## Chapter Seventeen

Nameless turns around and spots another alien. "Intriguing. I assume you are trying to invade this world, give the incident earlier today." Nameless says to the alien. "*Odnum coh ni Crocatoan tnesseearp te. Munamuh, Ucra.*" The alien responds, holding a spear now. Nameless chuckles. "You think humans bow down that easily? Your language is similar to Latin, almost like a reverse version from what I can make out. If you want someone other than me to understand you, learn our world's languages." Nameless replies, before rushing to slash at the Crocatoid, who stumbles back with slash marks on its armor before pointing the spear at Nameless and firing a yellow laser from it. Nameless ducks beneath it and grabs the Crocatoid's wrist before thrusting its arm upward and slashing its hand off. The Crocatoid quickly whacks at Nameless with its arm, knocking him back with the sound of cracking ribs. Nameless slumps a bit for a second, before regaining his composure and continuing his assault. The Crocatoid continues to block until a blade nearly hits its heart, the Crocatoid dodging in response. "I see, your heart is a weak point, and it appears you cannot regenerate." Nameless remarks before thrusting his blade the the Crocatoid multiple times to overwhelm it and then straight through its chest, killing it as it lets out a horrific screech. The bioluminescence ceases to glow, as Nameless kicks the creature off his blade, causing it to fall to the street below.

Nameless sheaths his sword and pulls back his hood, before taking off his mask and taking a phone out of a pocket and calls on it. "I'm here to report an alien sighted falling from a parking lot building..." Then, he walks into the light, Franklin's face shown wearing the suit. "This is the Lawyer and District Attorney of Killeen, Franklin Black."

Trevor wakes up under a bright light, and immediately covers his eyes in pain. "Ow! My eyes!" Trevor yells, as he notices the lights dim. He takes his hands off his eyes and notices Aezla with her hand on a...control panel? "Uh, okay, thanks." Trevor says to Aezla, who glances at him but ignores him otherwise. "Oh, you're awake! Good, good! That means my device successfully healed you!" Krincax shouts, prompting Trevor to whirl around and see the alien scientist. "Huh? King Tut, much?" Trevor jokes. "This is my master, Krincax." Aezla corrects. "Yeah, he managed to heal the worst of your wounds." Connor interjects. "You were almost killed." Rosette says to Trevor, still holding the lead pipe in her hands. "Yeah, I know I was almost killed, and my stomach still hurts from having a pipe driven through it, but what do you think I expected going into that fight? This, this kind of stuff is what I expect going into a fight period!" Trevor replies. "Yes, and it made a mess in my lab!" Krincax shouts back, before sighing. "Fine, fine. You're free to go. Let's hope you find Nameless. I'm dying to dissect him!"

Trevor, Connor and Rosette's eyelids droop at what Krincax said, as they begin to leave. "Be sure to call me when you find something to experiment on!" Krincax shouts. "Okay!" Connor answers without looking back.

"Please, Officer Carl! We're telling the truth!" Daniel shouts at Carl, who groans. "You fought an alien made of rock who can shoot lasers outta' a spear? Ha! You're just making up a reason for why you lost the HSFR!" Carl yells back. Maria crosses her arms and leans back, then facepalming. "We don't have time to fight over this..." Maria moans, as they all hear a knock on the door.

They turn to see the door forced open by a policeman chained up with the Crocatoan Franklin fought. "What...in the name of...?" Carl breathes, as they begin to get closer. Maria finds a folded up parchment and unfolds it. She could see what looked like a language translation, but what she saw mainly was a message from Franklin.

*They are going to attack the city this year.*

A starship the size or a large building is seen orbiting Earth. A beastly creature walks along an odd-looking hallway and turns around to walk along the next. It then reaches a door and places a hand on the wall, triggering some sort of scanner device and opening said door. It walks to stand in the room and faces a swivel chair, whoever sitting in it facing away from the Crocatoid.

"*Mutilim ovla eartsron sitrom oitnes...*" The one in the chair says angrily. "*Tabanimretxe sirullet ealocni tnus itpa, Beta-Sirius.*" The alien who walked in replies. "*Et atnemidepmi amirp ed rutiga ednied, Alpha-Leo.*" Beta-Sirius orders, to which Alpha-Leo bows and nods. "*Enimod, suie etanimile oge!*" Alpha-Leo shouts back loyally, before running out of the room and towards a space pod.

It is raining. Charlotte, once more wearing a hooded jacket, is walking along a sidewalk, thinking about what happened. "*Trevor...I'm so sorry...I killed them all...I have no excuse...I'm a monster...leaving me is just--*" Charlotte is cut off by a shrill, growly voice which seems to come from inside her own head. "*Are you the Earthling known as 'Charlotte Nechita'?*" The voice demands. Charlotte gasps and looks around, before spotting what looks like a Crocatoid with light bioluminescence rather than yellow atop a store. "Who are you?" Charlotte demands, to which the ailen smiles. "*I am Alpha-Leo, a warrior of the Crocatoan!*" Alpha shouts as an answer, before taking out a spear-staff and leaping down to the ground and landing on his feet, cracking the concrete around him and attracting the attention of civilians, one of which takes out a camera and starts filming.

"What do you want to do, kill me?" Charlotte demands. "*Oh, yes. We're getting ready to scout this planet, which we can't exactly do with those like you in the way.*" Alpha answers, before lunging at Charlotte with the spear, Charlotte blocking with her sword, grunting a bit. "*He's that quick? I could barely raise up my sword in time!*" Charlotte thinks to herself before kicking Alpha away and rushing to slash him. Alpha dodges multiple times before blocking with his claw and slashing at Charlotte with it, Charlotte ducking, leaping and sidestepping to barely avoid the slashes before getting cut across the waist. "Agh!" Charlotte shouts before beginning to heal. "*Oh, you're one of **those** species that heals fast. Bother.*" Alpha remarks, sounding a bit annoyed, before pointing his weapon at Charlotte and slashing it, sending a crescent wave of energy at her. Charlotte quickly slashes her sword to create her own wave of energy to counter. "*Viațătranșă won't be able to hold that forever. I have to find a way to find--*" Charlotte thinks, before her blast is overpowered and she quickly ducks, the slash cutting a building in half instead. "He's that strong?" Charlotte remarks, before noticing his face is exposed. She quickly runs to slash at his face, right when his horns form into a visor to protect it. "A visor?!" Charlotte exclaims, quickly leaping back to avoid a slash from Alpha, barely ducking to avoid a blast from the same spear, which blasts down mutliple larger buildings. "Ugh!" Charlotte grunts, before running into the shadows to hide from Alpha and think of a plan.

"*Where are you, Charlotte? I just want to kill you!*" Alpha yells eagerly. Charlotte looks on at Alpha and begins to examine him from afar. "*His polearm, that's what I need to get away from him. This'll be easier for me to win if I do that...*" Charlotte thinks.

Alpha scratches his head in confusion. "*Well...I guess I'm gonna' have to tell my cousin I failed...first time too--*" Alpha starts, before being cut off by Charlotte, who leaps out to slash him. "Graaaaah!" Charlotte cries, slashing at Alpha some more, Alpha blocking with his spear-staff each time. "*And here I thought my brother would get to berate me for something **other** than my scratches.*" Alpha remarks. Charlotte then grabs Alpha's arm. "*Huh? What?*" Alpha demands, before Charlotte twists it and takes out her sword to stab Alpha in the wrist, forcing him to let go of his spear-staff. "*Hey! That's cheating!*" Alpha yells, leaping back. "*Then again...that gives me a chance to cheat, too!*" Alpha's claws then form into glowing white swords which emit a glowing white smoke. "What...?" Charlotte questions, taking a few steps back. Alpha laughs and runs to slash at Charlotte, who leaps back as a pole is cut cleanly through with no effort. "How sharp are those blades?!" Charlotte yells. "*The can cut through anything!*" Alpha yells back, laughing as he continues to slash, Charlotte dodging each time, once her leg getting slashed. "Gah!" Charlotte grunts, falling to her knees as she quickly ducks under another slash from Alpha. "*He's so quick! I need to find a way to end this soon or I'm dead!*" Charlotte thinks as she continues to try and dodge every slash. Then, it hits her.

Charlotte watches Alpha carefully as he rushes to slash her again, laughing. She then quickly sidesteps, getting a gash cut in her forearm, as she grabs Alpha's left arm and stabs it into his chest. "*GAH!*" Alpha screams. "*How did you know to do that?!*" "Simple, you told me your blades could cut through anything." Charlotte answers with a slight smile. "*Well, don't hit my heart!*" Alpha screams, before bowing his head down. "I'm an idiot..." Alpha thinks to himself as he suddenly feels his arm getting torn off. "*No!*" Alpha screams, as he quickly blocks his left arm with his right. Charlotte quickly slides the blade down to his shoulder and cuts his other arm off, before stabbing him in the heart. "*No--GUH!*" Alpha screams, sounding choked, before falling to the ground. His bioluminescence fades as he begins to bleed. Charlotte slumps away, groaning.

Daniel and Maria are walking along the corridors of the new makeshift base in Killeen. "These aliens, 'Crocatoan', were they? The Crocatoan could prove to be a greater danger than we currently know of." Maria says. "Yes, we know. Maybe only we know, but we know." Daniel replies. "Maybe we'll run into--" "Grand Admiral, look." Maria interrupts, pointing to a TV screen displaying news footage of Charlotte and Alpha's battle. "It appears that space aliens are invading Killeen." The news lady says. "Great, a city-wide panic, just what we need." Daniel jokes.

Trevor, Connor and Rosette are walking along an alleyway and see the park where Charlotte and Alpha had fought. "What happened here...?" Rosette asks quietly. "Not very long ago today your Vampire Queen fought another one of those 'Crocatoan'." Marcus says from behind them, causing all three of them to leap back and turn around. "Marcus!" Connor shouts, before forming his hand into a ragblade. Marcus holds his hand up. "I am not here to fight you. Quite the contrary, in fact." Marcus corrects. Trevor's pupils dilate. "You want to help us?" Trevor asks. "No, I want you to help me stop the alien threat that's attacking this world. The other problems are already in the process of being handled, and I'm not as incapable of thinking clearly as you believe." Marcus answers. "...Alright, but I want your word that you won't bretray us...or try to start anything." Trevor finally replies. Marcus nods, as they begin to follow him, still suspicious.

## Chapter Eighteen

The Crocatoid from before is walking with two other Crocatoan beside him along a hallway lined by even more Crocatoan. The tunnel appeared to be in construction, and highly advanced. They enter into a near-completed room, as the blue Crocatoid places a claw on a...control panel?, causing a screen to flare up, and an Crocatoid with green lights, large, devilish, green crystal horns and red catlike pupils was sitting on a throne, glaring into the screen.

"*Beta-Sirius, tse ouq sutats tnerruc?*" The Crocatoid in the screen demands. "E*nimod ihim subitnetsiser detnawnu da sitcere eativ eamrof tnus eanegidni rotpircs atenalp.*"The Beta-Sirius replies."*Cnun atenalp snegetorp coh yltnerruc tnus iuq silli ed sov sumigretxe. Satluciffid tse coh!*" Beta-Sirius in the screen yells back. "*Im enimod, aut satnulov qouq.*" The blue alien answers with a bow, as the screen turns off. Suddenly, multiple Crocatoan are screaming, the screams supposedly being cut off. "*Cnun diuq?!*" Beta-Sirius demands angrily.

Nameless is standing outside of the Crocatoan base entrance, which was on a mountain top, holding Voxir in his hand, before letting him go, Voxir flopping on the ground like a ragdoll. "So this is the base of the invaders...the Crocatoan." Nameless remarks, before seeing what looked like a Crocatoan tank drive out of the base of the mountain and take aim at him. "A curious vehicle..." Nameless says to himself, slowly walking forwards. "*Fire!*" A Crocatoid says, Nameless having learned their language by now to understand. He quickly runs forward to block multiple lasers from the tank, which vaporize multiple trees. "*Attack as one! More power**!***" The Crocatoid screams, the tank sending a rocket at Nameless, who swings his sword and cuts it in half, causing it to explode.

The Crocatoan cease fire for only a moment, but see Nameless running out of the smoke with his suit only slightly tattered. "*That was essentially a compressed nuclear fission reaction!*" The Crocatoid yells out, as multiple Crocatoan rush at Nameless with their energy spears, firing them directly at the Ronin, who dodges and deflects the lasers before jumping in between two Crocatoan, causing them to shoot each other in the hearts as he leaps upwards to dodge the lasers, and kicks another Crocatoid in the face. The Crocatoid's lower jaw splits in half as a snake-like tongue flies out and tries to bite Nameless at the neck, Nameless cutting the tongue off before driving his sword into the Crocatoid and kicking it to five more, the Crocatoid exploding from a bomb placed in its heart, killing all six of them at once from the chain reaction. Nameless grabs one of the spears and runs at the Crocatoan tank, which starts backing up into the tunnel at max speed, Nameless in hot pursuit as he slashes apart every Crocatoid that gets in his way. The tank fires another rocket at Nameless, who sidesteps the rocket as it hits the ground and explodes with enough force to shake the mountain.

Nameless runs out of the smoke yet again, an eyelid missing from his mask, as he runs to slash one of the gravity treads to bits, before doing the same to the others and causing the tank to spin out of control. He then drives it through a window and into a Crocatoid's heart, killing it instantly before leaping back. He then jumps on the tank to slice a Crocatoid's head off, makes the spear unstable and throws it into the tank, exploding it and not only killing all the Crocatoan in the pathway, but also blasting the doors from the room to the pathway clean off. Beta-Sirius growls and turns around with the other Crocatoan to face the now-opened doorway. Footsteps are heard, as a silhouette is seen through the smoke. First his feet, then Nameless' entire body are fully visible. Many of the Crocatoan take multiple steps back. "*He wiped out almost this entire base...*" Beta-Sirius remarks. "Greetings, Crocatoid. I assume you are the one leading this...'scout mission', as it can be called?" Nameless asks. "*We will give you no information, human.*" Beta-Sirius replies coldly. "There is no 'we' among your ranks here on Earth. The higher-ups on this 'Class' have some semblance of free will, but most of them are mindless, and obey every thought you yourself place into them. A hive mind." Nameless corrects. "*Regardless, why are you here?*" Beta-Sirius demands with a growl. "We'll talk about that while touring this base of yours, how about?" Nameless answers without answering. Beta-Sirius groans and begins showing Nameless around.

*Charlotte is walking across a snowy path, growling and covered in blood, leaving footprints of blood behind her, contrasting the red blood against the once-white snow in an unsettling way. She continues onward until she faintly hears something and just barely dodges a throwing dagger aimed at her heart.*

*"Ah!" Charlotte shouts, before whirling around and taking a step back, glaring at an assassin wearing a black suit, hood and mask, and holding some sort of sword, maybe Eastern? The ninja runs at Charlotte and slashes at her, leaving many cuts in her body designed to make her bleed out. "Agh! Stop!" Charlotte screams, before kicking the ninja back, the ninja having blocked using a katana before running at her again, cutting the tendons in Charlotte's legs and kicking her in the back of her legs to trip her over and make her fall on her back.*

*"*What's happening? Who is this?*" Charlotte thinks, before seeing the ninja bring the katana down on her. Charlotte catches it with her bleeding hands and snaps the blade off, before grabbing it and thrusting it into the ninja's kneecap, causing the ninja to buckle over and fall.* *With heavy breathing, Charlotte stands up and looks at her sliced open hands. "Who was that?" She questions, before feeling something hit her neck. She takes it out and sees it look like a miniature Garlic Onion, before feeling dizzy and hearing a female voice speak. "That was Hasan el-Galla, and he is one of my men, Vampire Queen." The voice says, as Charlotte loses consciousness.*

Charlotte wakes up in complete darkness. She stands up and looks around, seeing only a vast expanse of empty black void around her in all directions. She starts to walk around, hearing her own footsteps echo. But no matter how long she walked, things never changed. It was as if she was always ending up back where she started with each step. Then, she hears a deep male voice, echoing through both the landscape and her mind. "*I have finally managed to contact you...*" The voice says, Charlotte whirling around but not seeing anyone or anything. "Who are you?!" Charlotte demands. "*I am...you. Your base instincts.*" The voice answers. "What--" Charlotte starts, before being interrupted. "*The humans you tolerate...tolerate them no longer.*" The voice interjects. "*Kill them all.*" "But Trevor! He's a human!" Charlotte pleads. "*Yes...and he abandoned you.*" The voice replies, seemingly annoyed. "*Render humanity extinct. It is your duty as queen.*" Charlotte thinks for a moment, everyone she knows flying through her head. "...No. I won't." Charlotte answers. "*...I suppose this will take a bit more time.*" The voice says, before Charlotte feels like she is blasted from all sides by something. Charlotte wakes up with a yelp. "Agh! What was that? A dream?" She turns her head sideways but sees a bench in a park, before bowing her head down sadly. "Please...please be alright, Trevor..." Charlotte whispers, beginning to cry.

Trevor ducks beneath a spear and steps backwards to slash at the Crocatoid that jabbed at him with an Eletero disc. The Crocatoid dodges as its arm is cut off, and leaps at Trevor to try and bite him before being beheaded by Connor. "You alright?" Connor asks. "Yeah, I'm pretty alright. except I nearly got stabbed by an alien!" Trevor answers. "I fought one of these things before. It takes a lot to actually cut them!" Connor says as he slashes a Crocatoid into Rosette, who slashes it multiple times before it is finally shredded. Marcus grabs a Crocatoid by the head and drives a blood spike through it, killing it as Marcus withdraws the blood spike. "Let's hope this didn't get infected..." Marcus mutters as he takes out a cross and jabs it into a Crocatoid's face, doing next to nothing apart from knocking its head backwards. Elsewhere in the subway tunnels, Sabrina and Crith are walking together. "Where do you think the train is? It should have been here thirty minutes ago." Sabrina asks. "...I do not know..." Crith answers. Sabrina seems to lean towards him a bit, before leaping back as she and Crith hear hungry growling from up ahead--and behind. "Crith? What do you think those growls are?" Sabrina asks, as she subconsciously grabs onto Crith's arm. Then, a small platoon of Crocaotan appear on both sides, and begin to close in on them. "...A girl like you should not be fighting..." Crith says. "Well, I'm fighting anyway!" Sabrina retorts, forming a blade of Eletero on her hand as she rushes to slash at a Crocatoid, surprised to see it mostly fine. "What are these things?" Sabrina demands, slashing at the same Crocatoid over and over, until she notices it swing a spear at her and quickly blocks with her sword. "What cuts through these things?!" Sabrina yells, as she leaps back. Two Crocatoan rush at Crith with their spears, but the moment they get within a foot's radius half of their bodies instantly melt, killing them as the fall into the now steaming sewage water. A laser flies at Crith from behind, bouncing off of him, before he notices Sabrina struggling against multiple Crocatoan, which are starting to overwhelm her. "Help, Crith! I can't hold them any longer!" Sabrina shouts as she begins to lose her footing. Crith sighs and has burning hot chains erupt from the ground, walls and ceiling, ripping through the Crocatoan as one fires another laser at Crith from behind, sending him to the ground. "Crith!" Sabrina yells, throwing a sword at the remaining Crocatoid as hard as she can, impaling and killing it instantly. She then goes to check on Crith.

"Huh? What's that light?" Trevor asks. "Probably more of them. We should get going now that we have a hostage." Connor replies, as Rosette and Marcus nod. They then run along the sewers for the exit, as the worker that was being attacked bolts out of there as fast as he can.

Nameless walks beside Beta-Sirius as they walk along a pathway ridden with tables that have people on them, seemingly slowly turning into Crocatoan. "It seems you are essentially a 'higher-evolved' form of vampire." Nameless remarks, as Beta-Sirius walks over to a door and opens it, revealing a massive dragon-like Crocatoid laying in the massive room. It roars and runs at Beta-Sirius, who creates a glowing blue staff out of Eletero and whacks it into a wall, cracking it. "*Stay down, E-Class.*" Beta-Sirius growls. "E-Class...you are as powerful as I imagined, given the scales." Nameless says, watching the dragon's movements carefully. "Miss Nechita will be heading towards the military base in Killeen. We are to be headed there in order to present a distraction for the military." "*What do you have to offer us?*" Beta-Sirius demands. Nameless smiles, as Valerie walks in holding Voxir. "Let...go of me..." Voxir grumbles, as Beta-Sirius slaps him awake. "Ouch! No need to be so...rough." Voxir had paused to take in Beta-Sirius' appearance. "What...the Hell are you?" Voxir demands, looking terrified. "*We will study it.*" Beta-Sirius says. "IT?! I'M A HE!" Voxir yells. "*I honestly don't care what you are.*" Beta-Sirius replies coldly, as he throws Voxir into the dragon's room and closes the door. "Now?" Nameless asks. "*Yes...we will raid this military base. Lead the way.*" Beta-Sirius answers.

Charlotte walks over to the base and up to Daniel. "Hello, Charlotte." Daniel greets. "What brings you here?" "I need a private jet to go somewhere." Charlotte answers. "Why?" Daniel asks. "...To get answers about all this." Charlotte replies, before walking over to a jet. "Okay, we'll get things set."

"That can happen later, Daniel Cross." Nameless says. Daniel whirls around and sees the masked killer standing there with Beta. "Oh God..." Daniel exclaims, before snapping his fingers to douse Beta in flames, doing nothing to him. "He must be a lot stronger than that other one we fought." Daniel remarks, as Charlotte runs to kick at Beta, only shattering her leg. "Agh!" Charlotte yelps, leaping back and wincing from the pain. Beta glares at her. "*This girl caused all the tragedy you say she caused? This girl is the most dangerous threat to humanity?*" Beta demands, as Trevor, Connor, Rosette and Marcus arrive. Beta throws Charlotte into the hangar as Nameless follows her, unsheathing his sword and closing the doors. Beta turns to the other four and glares at them all. "Who's this guy?" Trevor asks. "He must be their leader. He certainly looks to be a higher rank than the others." Marcus answers. "We can barely beat those yellow guys. You're saying this guy's their king or something?" Rosette demands. "I believe so." Marcus answers. "...We're screwed, aren't we?" Connor asks, shrouding himself in his suit and running at Beta to slash him, Beta blocking with a single finger. "Wh-what?!" Connor shouts, as Beta flicks him back and turns to the others. "Nameless is here!" Daniel shouts. "This could be your chance to get some answers out of him!" "Right. You two go on ahead." Rosette says, trying to slash at Beta, who seemingly detects the presence of the psychic...swords? and dodges each one. He suddenly appears in front of Rosette and slaps her into Connor, not bothering to notice a sword strike from Daniel. "How the Hell do we beat this thing?!" Daniel roars.

Charlotte keeps running backwards and trying to block slashes from Nameless, who quickly places a sword strike at her head, Charlotte blocking but leaving herself open to a kunai slashing her tendons, causing her to nearly fall as she grabs onto a railing and pulls herself up, blocking another slash from Nameless and regenerating. She stands up and notices a bomb on her sword. "No!" Charlotte yells, right when the bomb explodes, sending her into jet which is soon crushed by the pathway. Nameless jumps down and sees Charlotte struggling to get out, until her sword unleashes a blast of Eletero, the Viatatransa, to destroy the debris and leap out to slash at Nameless, who parries the slash and notices a piece of shrapnel aimed at his heart. Nameless dodges the shrapnel and throws chains at Charlotte, causing her to nearly be bound until she kicks one of the kunai to leap out of it. "I'm beginning to learn your tricks, Adam!" Charlotte shouts. "My battle tricks, yes, but what about..." The hangar doors open. "...my psychological tricks?" Nameless finishes, as Trevor and Marcus walk into to see Charlotte, but not Nameless, who had vanished.

Neither Trevor nor Charlotte spoke for a while. They just kept staring at each other with so many mixed emotions. Then, Marcus breaks the silence.

"I remember you well. You are the Queen of Humankind's greatest rival. Destroying you is essentially the equivalent of ending this war." Marcus says, clenching his fist, which turns into a blood claw. "Allow me to give you what you've always wanted since the day you first committed a true sin." Marcus rushes at Charlotte with his hand now five serrated, sharp blood claws, Charlotte raises her sword to slash at Marcus instinctively. "DAMNATION!" Marcus screams. But before either of them could strike...they stopped.

Trevor was standing in between Charlotte and Marcus, breathing quickly and heavily, with a terrified expression on his face. "You would prevent me from rendering judgement onto this monster?" Marcus demands. "Get out of the way, Trevor. He started it." Charlotte says. "Both of you, just STOP!" Trevor screams at the top of his lungs. Marcus twitches a bit, as Charlotte growls. But both pay attention to Trevor. "I don't...I don't know what to think. Not anymore..." Trevor says. "Simple. You think the truth. It's bad enough that she's a vampire, bad enough that she's their queen and bad enough that humans and vampires have been at war for centuries. But this one girl is considered to be the greatest threat to the survival of our species and possibly the survival of this planet. She chose to be a murderer and tried to kid herself that she had changed by using you and the rest of her friends as coping mechanisms!" Marcus answers. "I NEVER ASKED TO WATCH MY KITTEN BE CUT IN HER NAME ON HER FOREHEAD BY A PSYCHOPATH!" Charlotte screams back. "...How...how can you not understand people...? ...I need people to help me cope, their not tools! Do you want to know who actually considers people as tools? It's Adam! The one who murdered my little kitten before she turned one year old! This entire year has been nothing but his plan to tell me what I already know but make it a hundred times worse!" "And you think ALIENS somehow factor into this plan?!" Marcus yells back. "You have...no idea how smart that man is...he makes supercomputers...look like actual garbage." Charlotte answers, shaking. "I w-want to redeem myself...but he won't let me...he told me I...I killed his family." "You killed thousands of families!" Marcus yells into her face. "And you only did it because they 'got in your way'--" "STOP!" Trevor screams, crumpling over and crying. "I c-can't think straight anymore...I read n-names...I tried to t-tell myself they were all criminals...I forgot th-that even criminals have families...and no amount of criminals c-could fit onto that list...I feel like I...might be killed by you...but...I still..." Trevor stops talking. Charlotte cries as well and takes a step back, shaking even harder. "I love you, Trevor. I would never...k-kill you." "Do you believe that with all your heart? Is he your only exception in your path of destruction?" Marcus demands. Charlotte runs out of the hangar and towards the private jet, sobbing.

Connor, Rosette and Daniel were all on the ground, badly injured. Beta stands over them, glaring. Nameless then appears beside him. "Leave them. We succeeded in our goals for this mission." Nameless says. Beta nods and teleports them away. Connor gets up first, helping up Rosette as Daniel coughs up a bit of blood. "Who was that?" Connor asks, wincing from his wounds. "I don't know...but now I'm pretty sure...we'll all die." Rosette answers, barely standing up and leaning on Connor.

## Chapter Nineteen

Nameless walks into the dragon's room as Beta brings the bottom of his staff down on top of the dragon's head, making it recoil and growl. "*The creature fears me. It serves me perfectly.*" Beta remarks. "And its purpose? To attack strong military bases?" Nameless asks. "*In a way, yes.*" Beta answers. "Then Killeen is the perfect target. It has the most powerful military base on this continent. Destroying it would make the world all the easier to conquer." Nameless replies. "*And why do you seem so nonchalant about this fact?*" Beta demands with a tone of suspicion. "This world is Hell. It took everything away from me. You can have it as long as I continue to make Charlotte Nechita suffer." Nameless answers. "*Hmm...*" Beta trails off, thinking. The dragon tries to attack Nameless, but is blasted back by Beta's Eletero. Beta and Nameless walk out of the dragon's room to discuss their plan.

A plane flies through a blizzard, towards a mountain. Charlotte was sitting inside the plane, tears still flowing out of her eyes. "You're not going to want to keep crying in this weather." The pilot says. "What's wrong? You worried about someone?" Charlotte doesn't respond and wipes her tears on her sleeve, as the plane begins to land. "Alright, we're here. Don't know why'd you wanna' go to the middle of nowhere." The pilot tries to joke, but Charlotte doesn't smile or laugh. She walks out of the plane and begins to climb the mountain.

Trevor sits on a wooden crate and buries his head in his arms. More and more military forces were arriving to aid Killeen in stopping the Crocatoan, with Khaldun explaining what they are. "These monsters are silicon-based life forms that feed on the vital fluids of their victims via a proboscis, which they can also use to transmit their genome into their victims, which will change them into more Crocatoan. They are incredibly strong, durable and surprisingly fast, and have a lot of advanced weaponry at their disposal." Khaldun explains. "Hmph. Sounds like there isn't much hope for us." A general replies.

"Poor Trevor. He must be devastated by Charlotte leaving." Connor says, tailoring his suit. "Where did she even go?" "Wherever it is, it gives us time to focus." Marcus answers, a bit begrudgingly.

*Charlotte wakes up in what looked like an ancient room for an equally ancient temple. She begins to stand up and groan in pain as she then notices the many hooded, robed, suited figures with bladed weapons strapped all over their body. "What...?" Charlotte demands. "You have a rather good habit of killing, don't you?" A woman not wearing a hood asks. "My name is Ummu Kulthoom al-Pirani, and I'll train you, Charlotte Nechita."*

Charlotte walks across an ancient temple, and walks over to the temple before kicking the massive doors down. "Kulthoom!" Charlotte demands, prompting the 'ninjas' to look over at her with confused looks in their eyes, before running to slash at Charlotte. "Stop!" Ummu Kulthoom al-Pirani shouts, raising her hand. The 'ninjas' stop in obedience and bow down to the aged woman. Charlotte walks into the temple room and glares up at her. "A serial killer in Killeen, he's been trying...not trying, succeeding in breaking me, and he used combat moves identical to your own. Did you train Nameless? Adam?" Charlotte asks. "...Yes, I did. And I regret ever teaching you, masas aldima'." Ummu Kulthoom al-Pirani answers. "He currently goes by the name of Franklin Black." Charlotte's eyes widen, as she begins shaking, not of the cold, but of rage. "...Why are you telling me all this if you hate me so much? Why not just kill me?" Charlotte demands. "The answer to both of those questions is simple. Like Adam, I want you to suffer for all that you've done." Ummu Kulthoom al-Pirani retorts. Charlotte nods and walks out of the temple, as the aging woman who had taught both Charlotte and Nameless how to fight looks on.

Rosette skates through the military base to begin supplying everyone with food, weapons and armor. But at that moment, an alien pob crashes down on a tank. "Ah! What the Hell?!" A soldier yelps, pointing his gun at the pod. More soldiers do the same, as a giant metal claw bursts out of the pod, followed by the body of a massive dragon with silver skin, black, scale-like armor and four glowing purple eyes. It had purple crystals for horns and had purple lights all over its body.

"What...in the name of...?" Daniel demands. "It's a Crocatoan." Khaldun answers, getting into a fighting stance as a drop of sweat slides down his cheek. "The aliens have a DRAGON?!" Connor screams, his suit forming around him as his hands become blades. Connor runs to slash at the dragon, barely leaving scars on its armor as it grabs him with one hand and throws him into the hangar beside Trevor, who yelps and leaps off the wooden crate, before seeing the dragon. "...Seriously...?" Trevor asks. About fifty tanks gathered around the dragon and started firing, doing almost nothing to it. The dragon then lifts its head and opens its mouth, blasting a jet of purple fire around, destroying all the tanks and blasting everyone into the hangar, which was also being destroyed. More soldiers arrived to start firing at the dragon, one bullet grazing its eye and causing it to arc back in pain, roaring as it slams its claw down on the soldier, killing him. "Damn..." Daniel exclaims before snapping his fingers to create a massive explosion of purple fire beneath the dragon, doing nothing to it. "I knew it." Daniel says, as Khaldun runs to slash at the dragon, who, despite the scars, the dragon just slams its claw onto Khaldun, who blocks with his bionic arm, grunting in pain, before taking out his blaster and firing into the dragon's eyes, causing it to leap off of Khaldun, shrieking. The dragon then fires orbs of purple energy out of its mouth at them. When one orb hits a plane, it explodes with enough force to destroy the whole base. More of these orbs follow as Connor rushes to try and shield everyone. He grunts and yelps as each orb that hits him explodes. "WHY DO THE ALIENS HAVE A DRAGON?!" Trevor yells. "It's a war beast!" Khaldun shouts back. "The Crocaotan use them when their troops don't fare well against a planet!"

The dragon flies to slash at Connor, who blocks with more burnt cloth tendrils and tries to constrict and slice apart the dragon, but it doesn't give way and blasts fire directly onto Connor's head, sending a massive explosion at the hero point-blank. "CONNOR!" Rosette screams. A few moments passed, before Connor appeared out of the rubble, holding his side. "I...ducked in time..." Connor says woozily, before falling over. Rosette tries to run over to him, but Khaldun stops her. "The moment you get close to that thing, it will rip you in half." Khaldun says bluntly. "I don't care. It hurt Connor...it's hurting everyone here. I think...if it's a Crocatoid...that means I just have to hit its heart?" Rosette asks. "...Yes, I believe so." Khaldun answers. "Okay...that's all I needed to know." Rosette replies, before running at the dragon, yelling in rage as the beast feels something slash it across the chest, finally drawing blood. The dragon flies up into the air, roaring in pain and rage as it blasts fire at Rosette, who somehow catches it and launches it back at the dragon, who opens its mouth and eats it. "*There...*" Rosette thinks, as she flies up to the dragon's mouth and somehow forces it open without touching it. "Telekinesis?" Daniel asks. "Wait..." Khaldun trails off. The dragon tries to blast fire at Rosette point-blank. Rosette dodges and feels the fire burn her arm. "AGH!" Rosette grunts in pain, as the dragon feels something constrict its heart. "This is for Connor!" Rosette screams, as she shreds the dragon's heart. The dragon vomits blood and roars in rage, as it whacks Rosette into the ground, creating a crack long enough to reach Canada. Rosette groans in pain and looks up, as the dragon falls out of the air, woozily blasting a stream of fire at every fighter jet it sees. The dragon crashes to the ground and every purple light, crystal and eye on the creature fades to black, as its now dark-purple blood leaks out of its wounds. "We...we did it..." Trevor says.

"...Your dragon failed you. You will have to stage a full-scale invasion of your scouts, and handle them yourself." Nameless says. "Just be sure to keep them alive for when I get my hands on them." Beta nods, growling, but calms himself down. "*Scout Fleet...how close are you to the planet known as Terra, Sol III, or 'Earth'?*" Beta demands. "*We'll be there, soon, Lord Beta-Sirius.*" The Scout Fleet answers. "*Yes...soon we will test this planet, see if it is worth ruling, and conquer or destroy it!*" Beta yells.

## Chapter Twenty

The ocean was quiet at night. The stars shined overhead with the moon almost full. Then, a semi-futuristic, black military jet with a red cockpit flies over the ocean towards a large, dystopian-looking island.

As the jet lands on a landing pad in the semi-futuristic, industrial city island, the cockpit opens and man begins to walk out of it. He had grey-brown hair, with piercing yellow eyes and scars all over his face. He also wore some sort of body armor. Multiple Nazis notice him as he walks along the city. "Identify yourself, now." A Nazi says, grabbing the man and holding him in the place. "My name is Theoderic. I am here for a meeting with your Fuhrer." Theoderic then reveals a taser in his hand and electrocutes the Nazi to death, before punching another Nazi in the face hard enough to snap his neck and kicking another Nazi into the last Nazi present, before continuing to walk to what is basically the citadel.

Reinhardt was sitting on a chair that seemed to be healing any injuries he had taken. He was sharpening a knife which had a glowing red blade. Theodoric opens the door and sees Reinhardt. "Gute Nacht, Fuhrer Schnitzel." Theodoric says. "Hmph...you think speaking the language of the Fatherland will flatter me? What are you doing here...Blackhound?" Reinhardt demands. "I am coming here to aid you in destroying your enemies, for a price, of course." Theodoric answers. Reinhardt swivels the chair around to face him. "And who did you have in mind?" Reinhardt asks. "...I think you know her as...Charlotte." Theodoric says with an evil smile. Charlotte was running through the city, looking around frantically as she spots Franklin, no, Adam standing there. He notices her and runs over to a building, as she follows to tackle him. When she turns a corner, Adam is gone. Charlotte walks around slowly, looking around more carefully in the alleyway as she then stops. "I think I hear something..." Charlotte thinks, as she turns to the wall and kicks it, smashing through a secret door and seeing a storm of buzzsaws attached to the walls, ceiling and floor. "They look like...they do!" Charlotte figures out, as she waits ten seconds and sees all the buzzsaws along the left side of the floor and left wall stop, as she runs past them before the eleventh second can pass, right when the buzzsaws turn back on.

"That was close..." Charlotte remarks, as she walks along the dark hallways of the complex and looks around carefully. She feels something lower under her foot and leaps to press her hands and feet against the walls and bite her sword so as to not drop it as the floor up until the next intersection gave way, revealing lava which had spikes periodically jutting out of it and sinking back in, the interval being half a second. Trying to stay calm, Charlotte crawls along the walls as slowly and carefully as she can, accidentally pressing another button and feeling something made of wood stab through her hand. "AGH!" Charlotte yelps, nearly falling into the lava, which she then identifies as molten silver. Charlotte stabs the stake into the wall to stay put, grabbing her sword with her other hand and stabbing it into the wall to once again crawl to the intersection, leaping onto it and ripping the stake out of her hand. "UGH! GAH!" Charlotte screams, as she throws the wooden stake into the molten silver, watching her wound heal, but not as quickly as usual.

"Adam...all these traps are going to get me killed." Charlotte growls as she walks along the hallway, using her sword to check for any traps. She notices as her sword glows somewhat, especially the Alphabetical Characters engraved into it. She notices that it faintly glows brighter when she points it in certain directions and angles. "What in the...?" Charlotte trails off as she finds a door and slashes it open. She walks into the dark room and looks around, before she hears Adam. "Bine ați venit, Domnișoară Nechita." Adam says calmly. Charlotte whirls around and glares at him. He was staring at her with an almost smiling expression. "We really should talk."

Daniel slams his fist on a burnt table, roaring in anger. "WHAT THE HELL DID WE FIGHT?!" Daniel demands. "I don't know but please be more quiet! I'm tending to Connor." Rosette answers shakily, as she continues to heal Connor's wounds. "*It's taking a bit less time...is this Connor's suit?*" Rosette thinks to herself. Trevor was sitting on thw wreckage of a tank as Marcus walks to stand beside him. "I don't want to hear you keep telling me what I already know." Trevor says. Marcus bows his head down. "Actually, the coming alien invasion has helped me clear my head." Marcus replies. "Maybe there is a small chance of humanity and vampires to unite, but it won't happen through peaceful means." Marcus finishes as he looks up at the sky, seemingly trying to spot any Crocatoan Spacecraft.

"You're not mad anymore?" Trevor asks warily. "Don't get the wrong idea. I still despise vampires. It's in my DNA. The only thing that separates me from the many others with that same view is that I've been filled with enough hatred to act on it. But now, I don't have time to despise my fellow 'earthlings', no matter my feelings towards them. None of us have that luxury at the moment, not when we have an actual otherworldly threat coming to destroy us." Marcus answers. "Vampires are a literal plague, a disease. And dare I say many of more infamous ones were brought about by what were essentially curses. But these Crocatoan...they put all that to shame."

"Oh, come on, I thought we were your ultimate enemy, Marcus." Pyro's voice says from their left. Trevor yelps and turns to glare angrily at Pyro, but Trevor's glare was nowhere near as ferocious as Marcus'. "YOU! YOU KILLED MY FAMILY! MY MOTHER! MY FATHER! MY SISTER!" Marcus screams lividly. "Oh, yes. Her name was Mable, right?" Pyro asks with a sadistic glee in his voice, smiling just as sadistically, purposefully baring his fangs, which gleamed in the moonlight.

Reinhardt has finished healing himself by now, and seems to have upgraded his bionics, and is wearing more durable armor and a cleaner cloak. "This will be perfect to bring to Killeen." Reinhardt remarks. "With this, I will take out or only true obstacle to ruling this world." "Sir, there's someone at the docks!" The security soldier says. Reinhardt walks over to the security screen and sees Beta standing there. "It doesn't look human, sir." "No...it's not." Reinhardt replies. "Rita, pilot the W.Y.V.E.R.N., and team up with Tobias to 'welcome' our new 'guest'." Reinhardt orders. "Herr Reinhardt!" Rita responds, saluting before running out of the room.

Thousands of Nazis were gathered around Beta, as they start firing what were essentially building-sized explosions at him from their rifles. Beta instantly creates a forcefield to block, and glares around at the Nazis."*⊬⍜⎍ ⋔⟟⌇⟒⍀⏃⏚⌰⟒ ⊑⎍⋔⏃⋏⌇ ☊⏃⋏⋏⍜⏁ ⟒⎐⟒⋏ ⏁⍜⎍☊⊑ ⋔⟒.*" Beta thinks to himself, as he fires the forcefield outwards in all directions to instantly vaporize the Nazis and many of the buildings and vehicles within a 500-mile radius. "You must be the alien we were told to worry about." Tobias says, sizing Beta up. Then, Tobias holds out his hand towards Beta...and nothing happens. "Wha?" Tobias demands. "*Iron? I am not even a carbon-based life form, inhabitant of ⌇⍜⌰ ⚎*." Beta states, as a Wyvern-looking flying mech takes aim at Beta and fires what look like Inter-Continental Ballistic Missiles at him, Beta's shield blocking the strikes. "*You show wisdom and intelligence in not facing me alone*." Beta states, as he forms a double-edged spear in his left hand.

Tobias creates a cannon from the metal around them and has it fire a spiked cannonball at Beta, who lowers his shield and twirls his spear, shredding the cannonball in an instant. Beta then quickly blocks a slash from Tobias, who had used the cannon as nothing more than a distraction. "And what *are* you made of?" Tobias demands. "*You must take me for a fool if you believe I will disclose such information*." Beta answers bluntly, as he lets Tobias kick him with a metal boot for essentially zero damage, before whacking Tobias back, Tobias' shoulder charred from the strike as it falls off. "No!" Tobias roars as he magnetically attracts his shoulder and clavicle back together and forms his arm into a bleeding, fleshy blade which is soon covered in all sorts of metal parts that work in conjunction to make a high-frequency blade. "Für das Vaterland!" Tobias cries out, as he runs at Beta again.

*Adam, Emilie and Aiden were walking down a park. It looked as though there was birthday party going on, and Aiden was wearing a hat with the number 10 on it. Aiden was smiling happily as he went to play with his friends. Emilie sits next to Adam and smiles at the party. "Our little boy is now ten." Emilie says happily. "He isn't so little anymore." Adam responds, before it starts to rain. "Ah, we better get back inside before we catch anything--" "Look at the children, they're having so much fun." Emilie interrupts. "We're not going to catch anything. Why do you always seem so paranoid these days? Emilie asks, before a dagger flies into one of the kids' neck." "What was--" Emilie screams, as more and more of the kids and parents are killed. "No..." Adam trails off as Emilie is suddenly impaled by a street lamp. "NO!" Adam shrieks. "S-save...A-Aiden..." Emilie moans as she looses consciousness. Adam runs to try and shield Aiden, but by the time he gets there, Aiden's stomach is sliced open. Adam holds his bleeding son in his arms. Lightning crashes in the distance.*

Charlotte doesn't respond to Adam's story for a while. "What do you have to say for yourself, to say to the world?" Adam asks. "...I'm sorry." Charlotte says. "I-I'm so-sorry...I'm s-so sorry..." Charlotte begins to cry. "Like Hell you are." Adam responds. "You can't bring yourself to be sorry, solely because it's me." Charlotte whimpers when she hears this. "Do you want to know a secret?" Adam asks. "We are in a vicious cycle of hatred. It all started with my experiment. I got the first turn. Then...then you killed my family, and so many others. That was your turn. Now, it's my turn again...Connor, Khaldun, Trevor are all the sacrificial lambs this time around--" "DON'T YOU EVEN LOOK AT TREVOR!" Charlotte screams at Adam, as she runs to slash him. Adam blocks each and every strike, noting their sloppiness, before kicking Charlotte to the ground and throwing a smoke bomb down to vanish. Charlotte runs to the smoke to try and find Adam, but to no avail. She crumples on the floor, starting to sob.

"*ENOUGH!*" The voice in Charlotte's head bellows. "*STOP BAWLIING OVER A HUMAN BEING!*" "YOU DON'T TELL ME WHAT TO DO!" Charlotte screams out loud. "*Ugh...what do you even expect from your 'best case scenario'? You mate with a human being? This is disgusting. You, we are the Vampire QUEEN! It is Charlotte Nechita's royal duty to bring about the end of mankind and the domination of vampirekind--*" "And what if I don't want to follow any royal duty, or listen to a...a hallucination?" Charlotte demands, causing the voice to laugh maniacally. "*I am no hallucination! I am the voice of your genetic coding, the instinct compelling you to follow nature! I'm YOU!*" The voice answers. "*So you really should stop, and listen to yourself.*"

Marcus uses a blood scythe, which was his hand, to block a slash from Pyro, who was also firing at Trevor, Trevor narrowly avoiding the bullets. "Yes! That's the spirit! I can taste the hatred in the air, it's delicious!" Pyro shouts. Trevor runs to try and bisect him with a Bōkyaku no Ukezara, but Pyro leaps upwards and kicks both Marcus and Trevor aside. Before Pyro can land, Marcus grabs him with a blood tentacle, as Trevor sends the Bōkyaku no Ukezara at Pyro's face, Pyro snapping his fingers right when it is inches from his face.

The Bōkyaku no Ukezara explodes, the dust revealing Pyro to not have been hit in the first place. "Wh-what the?!" Trevor shouts. Marcus growls as Pyro laughs. "Oh, you're such idiots!" Pyro yells. "My father was a vampire, but my mother was human! I inherited her Mutation; THE ABILITY TO DESTROY ANYTHING WITH A SNAP OF MY FINGERS!" Pyro finishes, as he sends a wave of red and black fire at Marcus, who ducks and lets it hit the Crocatoan Dragon's corpse, burning it into ashes in mere seconds. "Guh!" Marcus exclaims as Trevor kicks Pyro from behind. "Ow! You ruined my collar!" Pyro whines as he slashes at Trevor, Trevor quickly blocking by making an Eletero 'shield' around his body. "Eh?" Pyro questions as he turns around to feel a cross slam into his face.

"AGH!" Pyro yelps as he tries to get it off, but Marcus grabs Pyro by the face to not only hold the cross there but restructure Pyro's blood vessels to wrap around the cross. "You will not escape my wrath, spawn of Satan. THIS IS FOR MY FAMILY, YOU BASTARD!" Marcus roars as he grabs Pyro's wrists and forces all of Pyro's blood to rush into his arms at equal amounts. Marcus then continuously raises the blood pressure until Pyro's arms burst, shrouding the area in an ominous red cloud which quickly dissipates. Pyro runs at Trevor, who gulps, remembers what happened to his mother, and grabs a broken-off rod, which he drives into Pyro's heart. "You nearly killed my mom...you killed Marcus' parents...I won't let you kill anyone else." Trevor says, as he kicks Pyro to the ground.

Beta keeps blocking strikes from Tobias, and keeps sending him back, while whacking away any missiles or bombs Rita sends at him with the W.Y.V.E.R.N., and destroying anyone else who passes by. "*This cannot be the absolute pinnacle of this planet. If so, it is not worth ruling.*" Beta remarks, as he flies up and extends his spear to stab through the W.Y.V.E.R.N. and Rita's head, vaporizing Rita as well as 73% of the W.Y.V.E.R.N.. Beta then finds himself trapped in the W.Y.V.E.R.N.'s remains by Tobias. "I will keep you in this prison. You'll die for what you are doing!" Tobias shouts, as he lifts Beta into the air and gathers more and more metal onto the Crocatoid until there is a sphere of painted, scuffed, burning, twisted metal floating in the air. "I could've done this better in the cold..." Tobias remarks.

Glowing blue cracks begin to appear on the sphere, as they grow and form more cracks. Then, the sphere shatters and a wave of force hot enough to instantly vaporize everything within fifty feet of Beta and powerful enough to send Tobias flying into a now-burning hot rod, which stabs through his diaphragm. "N-No!" Tobias wheezes, as Beta lands on the ground and shatters the original trap around him, no longer holding his spear. "*If that was the best you could do...your species will be rendered extinct, not allowed to join us.*" Beta says calmly. "*I will wait for those guardians at Killeen to try something. Should they be able to kill me, this world will be worth conquering.*" "Wh-wh..." Tobias trails off as he looses consciousness.

Beta hears slow clapping and turns to see Reinhardt standing there. "You just wiped out most of my organization except for my scientists, engineers and Blitzkrieg Army." Reinhardt says. "Killeen...we're heading there as well. Consider this a declaration of war, extraterrestrial." "*We will see if you have any right to threaten the Crocatoan, human. So far, this has been pest control, not war and not even a proper scout mission.*" Beta then teleports away, as Reinhardt crosses his arms. "I'll be able to get there on short notice. The army and Blackhound are already stationed at Killeen with all that they'll need." Reinhardt says with an evil smile on his face.

Charlotte was outside of the complex at this point, walking over to the KPD to turn herself in. She knocks lightly on the door, crying. Carl opens it and sees her. "Someone to report?" Carl demands. "Two people actually...myself and Franklin Black...Adam Troy Ross...Nameless." Charlotte answers, as she walks into the precinct with Carl. "Look, everyone knows what you did, but we've got WAY too much on our plate already to worry about you! Nazis! Serial killers! Terrorists! ALIENS! What the HELL is happening to this city?!" Carl yells. "Now, what was this about Franklin being one of these said serial killers?"

"Uh," a man with blonde hair and blue eyes interjects. " what time is it?" "Look at the clock, moron. It's Midnight!" Carl answers. The man chuckles. "Thanks." He says, as he instantly snaps his chains, takes out a gun and starts firing at everyone he sees. Charlotte slashes some of the bullets before they can hit her, Carl or a few others, but most of the police force was dead. "WHAT THE HELL?!" Carl bellows at the top of his lungs. "It is not what, but who." The man says, putting on eerily similar armor to... "We are Blitzkrieg. We are REICH. We are the will of Fuhrer Reinhardt, the future Kaiser of the world!"

Another Blitzkrieg walks in front of a car, and stops it with one hand as they kick it into a building, sending the building crashing down with anything still standing being set on fire. A few more take out advanced railguns, bazookas and RPGs and start firing at everyone and everything they see. The moon was now full, and red. Four more Blitzkriegs come across a Crocatoid, which brandishes its spear at them as they take out their weapons of choice and get ready to fight. More Crocatoan were attacking the city, knocking aside and fighting Blitzkriegs as hooded figures aided both sides.

"These wounds don't look too serious. You two should be alright." Rosette says as she heals Marcus and Trevor up. "Everyone's alright. So we should probably be getting back to the main city." "About that..." Daniel starts, as he points to the news. "Breaking News! It seems that Killeen is under attack from not only REICH and the Sabertooth Clan, but also an invasion of aliens--AH!" The news lady is cut off abruptly. "Sabertooth Clan...we haven't heard of them in a while." Trevor says. "We need to get over there, now!" Khaldun yells, as Connor wakes up. "What's happening?" Connor asks, when they suddenly hear and feel an explosion not too far away from them. Everyone runs to the entrance of the bunker, and is horrified.

"You have got to be kidding me..." Daniel groans. "There's...hundreds of them..." Rosette remarks. "How are we supposed to beat this?" Trevor asks fearfully, and for good reason. There were indeed hundreds of Crocatoan Spacecraft flying over and past them. A few of the Spacecraft were firing down at them, as one readies a missile. "There is not a creature in superstition...that compares to this." Marcus breathes. The missile fires and flies at them so fast that it was nigh-impossible to register it. The blast was equal to that of a thermonuclear explosion, and could be seen from Killeen. "Trevor..." Charlotte trails off.

"*⍙⊑⏃⏁ ⟟⌇ ☌⍜⟟⋏☌ ⍜⋏?! ⊬⍜⎍⍀ ⎎⍜⍀☊⟒⌇ ⏃⍀⟒ ⏃⏁⏁⏃☊☍⟟⋏☌ ⍜⎍⍀⌇! ⍙⟒ ⏁⊑⍜⎍☌⊑⏁ ⊬⍜⎍ ⍙⟒⍀⟒ ⍜⋏ ⍜⎍⍀ ⌇⟟⎅⟒, ⏃⎅⏃⋔!*" A Crocatoid in Adam's office says. "You made a grave error in thinking that you had me outmaneuvered, outsmarted. You thought you had placed me in checkmate but the whole time I was putting the pieces in their places." Adam replies. "Do not underestimate us just because our skin is paper to you." Adam throws a pen at the Crocatoid in just the right place to hit its heart, killing it instantly as it falls over. Adam then dons his Nameless suit and walks out of his office, multiple SWAT Teams stationed on either side, aiming at him. "Don't move!" A SWAT Officer says, as Adam draws his sword and slashes every last bullet out of the air with perfect precision, bicycle-kicking the SWAT Officer that had spoken into another and wrapping them both in kunai chains, except the kunai had bombs inside. Adam leaps out of the building as the bombs explode, blasting a good portion of the upper floor into the sky. Adam then kicks a Blitzkrieg into a Crocatoid and gets into a beaten up carm beginning to drive away while listening to something.

## Chapter Twenty-One

A hand was laying on the ground, connected to an arm, which was connected to Trevor's body. Trevor's hand twitches and he groans in pain as he pulls his arm back and scratches the ground. He is then helped up by Khaldun. "What...what happened?" Trevor asks warily. "We were hit by one of those ships. A single blast hit with the force of the most powerful weapon on this planet, the Tsar Bomb." Khaldun answers. "Wh-WHAT?!" Trevor shouts. "Then how are we...?"

Trevor turns to see Connor standing there with his arms outstretched and his rag tendrils surrounding them as a shield, burning. Connor then collapses to the ground as Rosette runs to help him. "Connor! Are you okay?" Rosette asks shakily. "Please, answer me! You saved us, Connor!" Rosette begins to cry, holding Connor close to her as she tries to heal him. "We...we don't have time for this." Khaldun says. "Stay here with Connor until he recovers. We need to get to the city." Rosette nods as the others leave to get to Killeen, which was already burning and ravaged.

A few people were running around screaming, trying to escape all those attacking the city. A Blitzkrieg grabs a man with a hockey stick and crushes his arm with ease. The man starts whacking the Blitzkrieg, who decapitates him with a sword. "This is merely the first that will fall!" The Blitzkrieg declares, as he hears growling and sees a Crocatoid glaring at him. "*⏃⌇⌇⟟⋔⟟⌰⏃⏁⟒*!" The Crocatoid screams before its lower jaw splits open to reveal metal fangs, as a bladed, proboscis-like tongue appears and it runs at the Blitzkrieg to attack.

Reinhardt slashes a Crocatoid in half and kicks the remains at a vampire, while walking towards City Hall. "A few months ago, the Sabertooth Clan tried and failed to take this city for their own. But I will succeed. Kill everyone in here." Reinhardt orders. "Herr!" The Blitzkriegs salute as they run around the building to attack and kill anyone in it. Reinhardt walks to the Mayor's office and over to a window, looking at the destruction. "All of this...will belong to me." Reinhardt says. "Your crimes end here, Reinhardt." Khaldun says on a speaker. "Come to the roof and face us." Reinhardt chuckles and walks up to the roof, seeing Khaldun standing there with Daniel. "You actually think you two can defeat me?" Reinhardt asks. "We don't think it. We know it." Daniel answers, snapping his fingers to blast fire at Reinhardt, who dodges the explosion and runs to slash at Daniel, Khaldun teleporting between them to parry with his own sword. "Hmm..." Reinhardt wonders, as he kicks Khaldun in the stomach, grabs him by the head and tosses him aside before blasting him. Khaldun quickly balances his sword on his foot and kicks it at the blast to neutralize it, while pressing a button to activate an EMP blast on Reinhardt's arm. "Agh!" Reinhardt roars before slashing at Daniel to make him jump back and running at Khaldun again. "You cannot win this, extraterrestrial!" Reinhardt shouts.

Charlotte was battling against multiple Blitzkriegs, blocking their slashes with her sword and cutting them across their helmets and chestplates, along with their elbows and knees. "What does it take to stop all of them?!" Charlotte yells, as she quickly catches a silver knife thrown by a Blitzkrieg, taking care not to touch the blade. "How did they...?" Charlotte thinks, before throwing the knie back at the Blitzkrieg, ending up sending it through his head. Charlotte kicks the last two Blitzkriegs to the ground and leaps up atopna building, quickly avoiding a Crocatoid before it can attack her and cutting its proboscis off. She hears clapping and sees Theodoric standing there, smirking. "You must be Charlotte Nechita." Theodoric says, as he takes out a gun and starts firing at her.

Marcus was destroying Blitzkriegs and vampires left and right, trying to avoid their attacks along with those from the Crocatoan especially. "These beasts never end." Marcus remarks, before a blast from a Crocatoan spacecraft hits the building Marcus is in and wipes out the entire block. Marcus leaps away at the last second. "Hello again, vampire hunter." Shiraki says from behind Marcus, who turns to see the vampire scientist smirking evilly at him, baring his fangs with the super blood moon behind him. He was wearing much more futuristic-styled goggles and a black suit with red lines across every last part of it. He also had four brown, almost stretched wing-like stalks sprouting from his back. "What happened to you?" Marcus demands, clenching his fist. "Oh, please...I did this to myself." Shiraki answers smugly. "I will one day go beyond being a simple vampire, and I start that path here!"

Reinhardt blocks slashes from Khaldun and Daniel, kicking them back as he lands on his sword which he had just stabbed into the ground. Reinhardt holds his hand out and starts firing blasts of superheated material at them. Khaldun blocks with his forcefield and fires at Reinhardt from behind it, before switching places with one of the plasma shots to punch Reinhardt in the face, Reinhardt barely flinching despite his metal half of his face being cracked. Khaldun then leaps back and detonates an explosive to destroy Reinhardt's metal half and slash his bionic arm again to cut it off. Reinhardt grabs Khaldun by the neck with his other arm and starts choking him. Khaldun teleports away right then Daniel snaps his fingers to erupt an explosion right beneath Reinhardt, Reinhardt running out of the flames, burnt beyond recognition, and kicks Daniel in the stomach with cracking sounds being heard as Daniel is sent flying into a Crocatoan spacecraft hard enough to crack it a little. Khaldun then starts teleporting around the area and avoiding blasts from Reinhardt, before teleporting to slash Reinhardt, who leaps off his sword, grabs it and slashes Khaldun across his chest. "Agh!" Khaldun yelps as Reinhardt grabs his face, slams him to the ground and places one foot on him. "I will crush you under my heel." Reinhardt declares.

Charlotte slashes every bullet, which looked eerily like silver and wood, away from herself as Theodoric kept firing. He then alters something and pulls the trigger again, firing a missile from a gun. Charlotte quickly dodges as it hits and destroys a hotel. "How did you?!"  Charlotte demands. "My Mutation is the ability to alter the properties of any weapon to my favor." Theodoric states, as he takes out a knife, turns it into a katana and runs to slash at Charlotte, Charlotte blocking and kicking Theodoric in the stomach. Theodoric's armor protects him as he points his gun at her and fires ultraviolet light from it, making Charlotte leap back screaming. "The UV rays that hit us on any day are diluted and weakened by the Ozone Layer. What you just got hit by was raw UV rays." Theodoric says, walking over to Charlotte and kicking her to the ground.

Marcus runs at Shiraki to thrust a cross in his face. Shiraki quickly grabs the cross and flips it upside down, before breaking it in half with two fingers. "Guh!" Marcus grunts, to which Shiraki laughs. "I already told you! I am so much more than a simple vampire!" Shiraki shouts, as he draws his sword and jabs it at Marcus multiple times, Marcus ducking and weaving to dodge as he quickly morphs his hand into multiple inverted blades to harmlessly catch the sword. "I will not allow you to use anything else!" Marcus yells. "Really?" Shiraki asks with a smirk, as a sudden 'pulse' erupts from the four stalks. Marcus feels something enter him, as he starts trying to force blood through it but to no effect. "What is going on?!" Marcus demands. Shiraki smiles darkly. "I siphon DNA, so I only need the probosci to be a bit wider than a single strand." Shiraki states as he then creates something in his hands, before revealing it to be some sort of doll in Marcus' likeness. "That's--" Marcus starts, as Shiraki suddenly stabs through the stomach, causing a hole to appear in Marcus' stomach and for him to vomit blood. "Y-you...!" Marcus groans angrily. Shiraki laughs maniacally. "Now I can control any one person completely!" Shiraki yells.

Trevor was sneaking along the Crocatoan spacecraft he thought Beta might be on. He does his best to avoid any guards, of which there were many. "This is an actual alien invasion! I've gotta' take down the leader...I hope." Trevor thinks to himself, as he hears more faint walking and peeks to see no one there. He sighs of relief and begins to walk out of the storage room and turns a corner, bumping into Sabrina and Crith. Trevor leaps back, yelping. "Oh, it's uh, you guys. Heheh..." Trevor says warily. "Good to see you again, Trevor." Sabrina responds. "We haven't seen you since the whole 'Chaemirah' incident." "Are you here to help us...?" Crith asks. "Uh, what are you guys here to do? I'm here to try and take down this ship." Trevor says. "We're trying to find someone we found out might be here." Sabrina answers. "I think his name is Voxir?" "I think Connor, Khaldun and Rosette fought that guy?" Trevor says. "We can't stay here..." Crith says. "We have to find--" "NO! NO! NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!" Voxir screams from a room across the hall around the corner. "Found him." Trevor says, before running over to the room he heard the screaming from. Sabrina and Crith follow him as Crith melts the door down and they see a Crocatoid cutting Voxir open with a spear. "What the Hell? Who are you guys?" Voxir demands. Crith walks over to the Crocatoid, who tries to stab him, the spear turning into dust and flowing around him before falling on the ground the moment it touches his face. Crith places his hand on the Crocatoid's heart, melting a hole through half of its torso. The dead Crocatoid falls to the ground as Sabrina slashes Voxir's cuffs to free him. "Damn, you're hot, but a bit young for me." Voxir says. "I guess I can wait, hmm, six years?" Sabrina raises an eyebrow. "Wuld you like us to put you back on this dissection table?" She asks. Crith doesn't say anything but seemed to have the urge to palm his face. "Are you Voxir?" Trevor asks. "No, I'm Dracula. OF COURSE I'M VOXIR!" Voxir answers. "Now I'm gonna' steal every last thing on this ship and show those aliens what for." "No, you're not." Sabrina replies. "We don't have a chance against an entire invading army by ourselves. We need to get out of here." Crith nods and melts a hole for them to jump through. "The ship is rather close to the roof. We will all survive the fall." Crith says. "But, just in case..." Sabrina nods and lets Crith pick her up. Crith looked in pain, but held her as he leaped down onto the roof. Voxir grabs Trevor by the collar and leaps onto the roof as well. "Ow!" Trevor yelps, as Voxir lets go of him and he falls on his face. "Dammit, the city's going to Hell." Voxir remarks. "If we don't stop it, the whole world will." Sabrina replies.

Reinhardt was still standing on Khaldun, crushing his ribcage. Suddenly, he feels a bullet graze his cheek and looks around to see Maria standing there. She had equipped quite a few firearms and was wearing some sort of body armor. "I think it's time we took you down for good, Reinhardt." Maria says. Reinhardt raises an eyebrow. "And why, exactly, do you care?" Reinhardt demands. "Does it need to be personal? You're the second coming of Adolf Hitler. That's reason enough." Maria answers, before firing at Reinhardt again, Reinhardt blocking with his still-functioning arm before taking out an advanced machine gun and spraying burning bullets at Maria, who dodges each one and keeps firing back. Maria changes guns in between two bullets fast enough to seem like she never stopped firing. Reinhardt kept blocking using the bionic parts of his body along with his rather damaged body armor. Reinhardt then throws his gun upwards and starts slashing the bullets with his sword instead, running at Maria to cut her across the midsection. "In war, enemies fight dirty." Reinhardt states, letting go of his sword and grabbing Maria by the neck before lifting her up and choking her. "Any last words?" Reinhardt asks darkly. "...Gute Nacht, Reinhardt." Maria replies, placing what looked like C4 on Reinhardt's chest. "No." Reinhardt exclaims, throwing Maria off of City Hall as Khaldun limps to the bottom of the building as quickly as possible. "No! NO! NOOOOOOOOOO--" Reinhardt screams, as the C4 detonates, destroying the entirety of City Hall as Reinhardt falls to the ground with a lot of rubble and debris falling on him. Any Blitzkriegs present see everything that has happened. "Start digging him up." A Blitzkrieg says, as they run towards the burning remains of City Hall.

Charlotte was on the roof, shivering from the pain and whimpering from the burns that were healing somewhat slowly. Theodoric stands over Charlotte and smiles darkly. "To kill a vampire, all one must do is stab out the heart and cut off the head." Theodoric states, creating a guillotine around Charlotte's neck and a spear positioned to stab her heart. Charlotte waits, knowing the spear is wooden and the guillotine is silver. "You can kill me..." Charlotte says. "Wonderful, allow me to do that." Theodoric says. "You can kill me...after I kill Nameless." Charlotte finishes, grabbing the spear and thrusting it through Theodoric's eye. Theodoric leaps back, screaming in agony. Charlotte then grabs the two safe handles of the guillotine and pries it apart, freeing herself. Charlotte tries to get up and walk to fight the armies, but falls to the

Marcus slowly gets up, regenerating from the damage. "You're still able to heal?" Shiraki asks with a sadistic note in his voice. Shiraki then starts destroying Marcus' bones and flicks his head head enough to make cracking heard from Marcus' now split-open skull. "Guh!" Marcus growls, shaping his hands into scythes and running to slash at Shiraki, who dodges and blocks each and every attack before tossing the doll away, which caused more injuries to Marcus, and putting his hands together to create a massive laser which hit Marcus dead-on and wiped out half the city along with a good portion of what was in the laser's radius for fifty miles.

Charlotte wakes up with a yelp as she sees the laser nearly hit her foot. "Oh, no..." Charlotte moans, as she looks to where Shiraki should be. Trevor, Sabrina, Crith and Voxir also notice the laser, as do Beta, Khaldun, Daniel and Maria. "It's Shiraki. I recognize that color scheme." Khaldun growls, as he tries to stand up while carrying Daniel and Maria. "*I don't have time for this...*" Beta growls, walking out of the spacecraft's bridge.

Marcus' hand moves after a few seconds of it being still. He gets up with his body beginning to slowly heal from the burns. A blast suddenly leaves a hole in his right lung, as Shiraki kicks Marcus into the air, Marcus landing on a rod that stabs through one of his kidneys. "Agh..." Marcus groans. "You really are a bother, Marcus Clayton. But now...you can join your worthless family." Shiraki says. At those last two words, Marcus snaps, ripping the rod out of the ground and his kidney and throwing it at Shiraki, who catches it with two fingers. Marcus begins to morph into a massive blood-red monster with razor-sharp teeth and claws. Marcus had grown to be the size of a large truck. Before Shiraki can do anything, Marcus slash-punches him, sending the vampire scientist straight into Beta's ship, past Beta.

"*Grr...*" Beta grunts, as Marcus leaps past him and starts rampaging through the ship, throwing aside and tearing apart any and all Crocatoan who get in his way. Beta creates an Eletero staff and lets the bottom of it touch the ground, sending a heat blast throughout the ship that incinerates any Crocatoan remaining and severely burning both Shiraki and Marcus. "WHY?!" Shiraki screams, as Marcus powers through the pain and grabs Shiraki's arm, forcing it to explode. Marcus then kicks Shiraki upwards and grabs him, throwing him past Beta again and dropping to the ground to run at Shiraki again. "Is that Marcus?" Trevor asks warily. "Who?" Voxir asks.

Khaldun was spraying something on Daniel's torso to heal it, as he gets ready to heal Maria as well. Shiraki lands on the ground with three stalks, an arm and his goggles missing. "Agh..." Shiraki groans, as he gets back up, beginning to heal, and sees Daniel. "You..." Daniel growls. Shiraki smiles evilly. "Oh...you were the friends of Austin Summers, correct?" Shiraki asks. "His face looked so tortured, betrayed and confused when he saw it was Maria Collins who shot him!" Maria starts firing at Shiraki. "SHUT THE HELL UP! STOP IT! STOP! DOING..." Maria drops her gun from her shaky hands and collapses to her knees. Daniel, on the other hand, just growls more. "Yes, we were friends. Best friends. **Childhood** friends. We served each other side-by side. We always helped one another and worked together. You are going to regret every last choice you've ever made in your life, vampire. Screw churches and Marcus. I WILL BE THE ONE TO **BURN YOU AT THE STAKE**!" Daniel screams, sending a blast at Shiraki so powerful that the fire engulfed the entire city. Shiraki shrieks in agony, fear, anger and glee, as Marcus tries to run through the flames but is badly enough injured that he is forced to morph back to normal and dive into the sewers. Every last Blitzkrieg, Crocatoid and vampire in the entire city was reduced to ash, Khaldun shielding Maria with a fully-engulfing force-field. Charlotte blocked the flames with her sword but felt her burned body being burned even further. Sabrina creates a quickly weakening Eletero shield to protect herself, Trevor, Crith and Voxir. The blast began to rise into the troposphere and nearly reached Rosette and Connor's location.

Rosette quickly creates a shield to block. "What is going on over there?!" She screams, holding Connor close to her and whimpering. Beta groans and taps his staff, creating a shockwave that blows away all of the flames, revealing Shiraki to have been burnt to a crisp, but somehow still alive. Daniel growls and turns towards Beta, who gives him an evil glare that also seemed to be intrigued. "*You will be given a monument when this test has concluded.*" Beta says calmly. Khaldun looked shock. "No effect at all..." Khaldun remarks, as the flames had done absolutely nothing to Beta. Shiraki whimpers in pain, as Beta walks over to him and flicks his finger on the vampire scientist's forehead, sending him flying through the air and beyond the horizon. Maria looked shocked, while Daniel draws his rapier and runs at Beta, who gets ready to run him through with the staff, but Charlotte appears between them and blocks with her sword just in time.

"*You are this world's strongest champion...*" Beta remarks, as he flies back to stand at the rubble Reinhardt had been removed from some time before. Trevor, Sabrina, Crith and Voxir appear along with Marcus, who had done his best to heal himself. "This guy, again..." Trevor says, gulping. "Trevor..." Charlotte starts, before seeing Marcus and stopping. Marcus sighs. "It is painfully obvious that we have bigger things to worry about right now." Marcus says, as they all turn to look at Beta. At that moment, Rosette and Connor appear as well, Connor looking to still be in the process of healing his suit. "*This will be the final test.*" Beta declares.

## Chapter Twenty-Two

Beta stood there as everyone glared at him. A few seconds passed, before Beta tapped his staff again. At that very second, walls of dark blue, wavy energy formed a Texas-shaped barrier around Texas, extending up to the Exosphere. "No..." Khaldun says. "It's a pocket dimension!" Beta then flies upwards and holds out an orb, before making it as large as it could be in this shape and dropping it to them. "This...can't be happening..." Daniel whispers. "How is something like this even possible...?" Rosette asks warily. "...Is this the power of a god...?" Marcus breathes.

As the orb hits, Rosette, Sabrina, Connor and Khaldun work together to create a shield to protect everyone, but the blast encompassed all of Texas and was incinerating everything in it. The shield was already beginning to waver from the blast, as the ones creating it were clearly struggling to keep it active. Crith sees the destruction happening and walks over to the edge of the shield, pushing everything out of the way and thrusting his arms out to try and redirect the blast away from them, his arms being burned, melted and vaporized many times over as he kept making them into stronger and stronger metals to try and survive, screaming in agony. "Crith! Stop!" Sabrina shouts. "It is my duty...to protect...this world...for..." Crith falls unconscious as the blast sends him back, Sabrina catching him, and hits them all, destoying the shield from the inside out right then the explosion stops.

Beta floats down to the ground and looks over at their location. Due to the explosion reaching them only at the last second, mostly everyone had only suffered minor burns, except for Crith, who was very badly burned from the attack. "*A champion is lost.*" Beta states. "N-no...he's still alive...I know it..." Sabrina says, crying. Khaldun runs at Beta to slash him, Beta cutting the sword in half with his staff before kicking Khaldun back, shattering his chestplate and his ribcage. "AGH!" Khaldun yells, holding his chest in agony. "*This cannot be all you have...*" Beta remarks, as Charlotte runs to slash him, Beta blocking with his staff, but Charlotte's sword not breaking. "*What is that made of...?*" Beta wonders, as he whacks Charlotte back and fires a blastwave at them, Voxir getting everyone out of the way just in time.

Daniel snaps his fingers to erupt an explosion around Beta, Beta not being affected in the slightest--but that was not the purpose of this attack. Sabrina quickly runs through the flames wearing Eletero armor and slashes Beta across his face, leaving a small cut as he leaps backwards and hovers a few feet above the ground. "*Keep this up...*" Beta orders, as he fires a laser at them as wide as a city and as long as a country. Voxir tries to get everyone again, but is burned in the process. "Agh! What the Hell is going on?!" Voxir yells. "That is Beta-Sirius, the Constellation Weaponizer. He leads the Crocatoan Scout Force." Khaldun explains. "Scout...Force?" Voxir asks warily. "There isn't any time to think about it!" Maria yells, leaping to kick Beta in the head before leaping off and landing on one foot, detonating a C4 on Beta's head, doing no damage to him but creating another cloud for Rosette to send her Eletero constructs through in order to restrain Beta. "*So that is how you would do this...*" Beta remarks, as Trevor charges up a Bokyaku. "Bokyaku no Uzekara!" Trevor shouts, throwing it at Beta, who's eyelids droop as he creates a forcefield around himself, cutting Rosette off from her constructs and protecting himself from the Bokyaku. Beta then expands the forcefield as another blast to send everyone back.

Marcus lands on his feet and morphs back into his monster form, before bulrushing Beta to slash him. Beta dodges and drives his staff through Marcus' stomach, as Marcus grabs Beta's staff hand and breaks it off. Beta gruns and kicks Marcus into the Thermosphere, before teleporting Sabrina to Oklahoma when she tries to slash him again and whacking Rosette in the head to break off her horns. Beta then grabs her by the neck and lifts her up to choke her, as Connor runs at him with two sledgehammers. Beta notices a bit too late and is hammered. He barely budges but lets go of Rosette to pry the hammers away from each other with two fingers, appear in front of Connor and flick him to Houston. Charlotte and Khaldun run to slash at Beta, who reattaches his arm with something akin to telekinesis, grabs them both, twirls around once and throws them both into Austin. Beta notices a bomb on his arm and rushes to take it off, but it explodes, not only sending burns across Beta's body but also draining him somewhat of Eletero. Trevor tries to form another Bokyaku, but Beta grabs his wrist, crushes it, and sends him to some random highway. Beta then notices Marcus rushing at him and prepares to stab him with an Eletero spear, but Voxir gets in front of Beta, grabs the spear and rushes away as Marcus grabs Beta and tries to crush him. Beta grabs Marcus by the neck, flies upwards, and throws him at Voxir to send them both out of the city. Beta then holds Maria and Daniel up with 'telekinesis' and makes a hand-flick gesture to send them out of the city as well. Rosette and Crith were on the ground, helpless to do anything.

Before Beta can kill them, Voxir runs to grab them and take everyone as far away from Killeen as they could in this pocket dimension. "This isn't going well." Voxir says a bit breathlessly. "YOU THINK?!" Daniel screams. "We can barely hurt him!" "How are we supposed to beat that guy?" Trevor asks, sounding scared."How do we fight him?" Maria demands. "We need to make him use up all of his Kozmikus Eletero, that is, Eletero found in space. If we can do that, beating him should be much easier." Khaldun says. "Alright. Now we need a plan..." Connor replies.

Beta was standing on the ground, waiting. "*Have they fled...?*" Beta wonders, before seeing Khaldun, who immediately notices that all the orbs surrounding Beta's body had vanished. "*It's just like I thought...*" Khaldun thinks. "We are back to keep fighting, Beta-Sirius, and this time we know how to beat you." "*Show me your plan, then.*" Beta replies, before seeing Marcus running towards their location and suddenly making the orbs reappear and dissipate into 'flames' which burned away everything that was left and made a ring around them. Khaldun thinks for a moment, and then runs at Beta. Beta prepares to block, before Khaldun suddenly teleports to attack Beta, who switches Khaldun's place with the fire's. The fire then hits Beta head-on, melting his armor somewhat and definitely damaging him. Beta shouts in pain and then dissipates the fire, before sending a spatial slash at Voxir to cut his arm off, Charlotte appearing to slash him in the face, knocking him to Trevor, who hits him with a Bokyaku. Beta is still standing upright. "*You've given me no choice...this test was a series of tests and I will show you this test's second to last test.*" Beta states, flying up to condense all of his remaining Eletero into a massive construct with the surface ares and shape of Texas along with the thickness of a skyscraper. Beta phases through the construct and floats in the air above it. "Connor! Now!" Khaldun shouts. "Are you sure I can do it?" Connor asks. "That suit, I'm not entirely sure, but it may be able to absorb Eletero. "And if it doesn't?" Connor asks. "...We'll probably all die." Khaldun answers.

Beta drops the construct on them right when he falls and the dimension shatters. Connor creates a shield above everyone and gets ready to absorb it. When the construct hits and explodes, the blast radius is ten times larger than Texas but was shrinking and being absorbed into Connor, who was screaming as his suit was burning further and further. Right when the blast is fully absorbed into Connor, the suit releases the energy with the blast radius now only covering Killeen...or where it would be. Beta spins a non-Eletero spear around to keep the blast from hitting him on the way down, as he throws its sharp end into the ground and lands on its blunt end. At that second, the blast was gone. Sabrina immediately starts running back. Everyone was on the ground, badly burned. Beta takes out his staff and notices Charlotte getting back up and healing. She was breathing heavily and runs to slash at Beta, who blocks with his spear and kicks Charlotte to the ground. "*Do you have any last words you would like to say?*" Beta asks. At that moment, he feels something stab through his heart and sees Charlotte distort, revealing it to have been Khaldun he knocked to the ground and Charlotte who stabbed him...stabbed him through his heart.

Beta wheezes raspily and places his free hand on the blade of Charlotte's sword. "*This blade...it can never break...can it...?*" Beta asks. "*You should be...honored. You have fought with such power, courage and intelligence...that you managed to defeat me. Even if you had lost, I would erect monuments for each and every one of you. You passed the test and earned my eternal respect. I pray that your world will be guided...to safety.*" At these words, Beta dies, his blood and lights fading to black.

Charlotte removes her sword from his heart, as Beta falls lifelessly to the ground. Charlotte also collapses, badly injured. "We...we won..." Trevor whispers. "Yes you did." Adam says from above him. Trevor looks up at Adam in shock, Adam not wearing his Nameless suit but rather some sort of military outfit. He grabs Trevor by the collar, looks at Charlotte and smirks. "He's the sacrifical lamb...and it's my turn." Adam says. "NO!" Charlotte screams, throwing her sword at Adam, who throws down a smoke bomb. Right when Sabrina arrives, the smoke clears, revealing Adam and Trevor to have vanished. "No..." Charlotte whimpers, crying.

## Chapter Twenty-Three

Charlotte continued to cry, and began to cry harder, until sobbing. "Damn, you liked that human, didn't you?" Voxir asks. "Well, he probably got cut into pieces by that Nameless freak--" "SHUT THE HELL UP!" Charlotte screams at Voxir, glaring angrily at him. But she remembers Adam's words. If Trevor was the sacrificial lamb...

"Ugh...is everyone alright?" Daniel asks, barely okay himself. "I don't think I can move right now." Maria answers. Rosette was helping Connor up as he hugs her. Rosette hugs Connor back, still shaking in pain from Beta's assault. Khaldun looks around at the destruction and begins trying to call Star-C. "Felix to Alpha Base, Felix to Alpha Base, come in!"

No response.

"Dammit. My comm link must have been damaged. I'm marooned here for now." Khaldun growls. "What happened here?" Sabrina asks, holding Crith gently. "Where's Beta?" Daniel points to Beta's corpse. "We only won...by tricking him." Daniel groans. "But we still haven't dealt with Nameless, who is as far as I know our only threat left." Charlotte begins to get up, healing from her previous injuries but still in pain. "What are you doing?" Khaldun asks. "I'm going to save Trevor, and...I'm going to kill Adam." Charlotte answers. "I know it's...probably...what he wants, but...I don't have any other choice." Charlotte runs off to try and find Adam's base.

Trevor wakes up, or at least he thinks he does. It was hard to tell, as he could see nothing but the color black. "*What's going on?*" Trevor thinks to himself. "*Where am I?*" Trevor was sweating and breathing heavily. What did Adam do to him? Then, the bag is ripped off of Trevor's head, and he can see a somewhat well-lit room with plain, grey walls, ceilings and floors. The room was massive, and there were no windows. A few parts of it had yellow and blakc safetey tape on the ground in uniform shapes. Trevor sees all of this before realizing who took the bag off of his head.

"Franklin Black?!" Trevor yelps, seeing Adam standing in front of him without his mask on or his hood lifted. "You can call me that if you want. I suppose it could be considered my current name." Adam responds. "Why am I here? Why didn't you just kill me?" Trevor asks warily. "You're not supposed to die. What I want sacrificed of you...is your love for Charlotte." Adam states. "I know you still have feelings for her, even after learning that she is a mass murderer. I want you to say the words 'I hate you' to her face, I guess somewhat poetically similar to how she once said 'I love you' to yours." Adam smiles a bit.

"Why would I hate her...for what she did in her past? She's trying to redeem herself, to be a better person. I'm terrified of her but that doesn't mean I don't..." Trevor trails off. "Are you listening to yourself, right now?" Adam asks. "It's a sad truth, but governments see the people in mass killings as statistics. Statistics. That's how it's always been. But I personally knew two statistics in Charlotte's case. My family." Trevor keeps glaring warily at Adam, who continues. "It was Aiden's tenth birthday. A storm had been predicted to be coming that same day, but it didn't stop me, Emilie, and our son, Aiden, from throwing a party in the middle of Olklahoma. And, well...they didn't make it. I was left in the rain, alone, the corpses of everyone who attended littered around my and my family dead in my arms." Adam finishes.

Charlotte runs through a forest, believing that Adam would not choose an urban area as a base a third time. She hears something rush by and around her and the glint of a sword. "*He's here...*" Charlotte thinks, as she quickly parries a strike from not Adam, but Valerie. "You again?!" Charlotte roars. "I don't have time for this!" "Neither of us are leaving until one of us dies, my queen." Valerie responds, unleashing a Viatatransa from her sword, which Charlotte counters with her own before slashing at Valerie's neck, Valerie moving her head to bite Charlotte's sword and keep it in place while slashing her across the midsection and kicking her back. Valerie stops biting Charlotte's sword and rushes at her, Charlotte trying to block the slashes with her arms, which were being rapidly cut. Charlotte yells in pain and quickly grabs a log to catch Valerie's sword with. Charlotte then kicks Valerie in the chin to send her flying before throwing the log with Valerie's sword in it aside.

Charlotte runs to where Valerie should be, but there was only a cluster of bats hanging upside down in a tree. Charlotte turns around to walk away, before hearing something and quickly turning around to block a makeshift stake of wood with her arm, screaming in agony as she does so. "You can't be that surprised!" Valerie says gleefully. "Shiraki really wanted us to embrace what we are." Valerie takes advantage of Charlotte's pain to kick her towards a spring, and grabs her sword out of the log before running to decapitate Charlotte with it. Charlotte was holding the blade of Valerie's sword, whimpering in pain as her hands bled. Before Valerie can do anything else, Charlotte snaps half the blade off and drives it into Valerie's neck, cutting her vocal cords and windpipe. "Gh-ghhh!" Valerie wheezes angrily. Charlotte then tears the stake out of her arm and throws it through Valerie's heart, while kicking Valerie to the ground and beginning to punch her in the face repeatedly. "I CAN'T LET YOU STOP ME! I CAN'T LET ADAM RUN FREE! I CAN'T LET TREVOR DIE!" Charlotte screams, before leaping off of the now-dead Valerie and looking with a horrified expression down at her bloodstained hand. "...Adam...will be the last person...I ever kill." Charlotte tells herself, trying to calm down as she grabs her sword and keeps running to where Adam may also be.

"Rose..." Connor trails off, leaning into Rosette while experiencing agony. Rosette begins to tend to Connor's wounds as her horns slowly heal. Daniel growls and tries to get back up. "I can't let this happen. I can't let Nameless do whatever he's going to do!" "What choice do we have?" Khaldun demands. "We're all barely standing, some of us barely alive." Daniel turns his head away and grits his teeth in both anger and pain.

Trevor thinks for a moment, before remembering something. "You killed Charlotte's kitten, Dori." Trevor says. "You blackmailed her friend into telling you about Dori. You've done so many bad things yourself--" "And who told you these things?" Adam asks. "Well?" "...Charlotte." Trevor answers reluctantly. "Oh, I see...the same way she told you she was a murderer when you two first met--oh, wait, she didn't do that." Adam replies. "She lied to you when she said I killed a cat she may or may not have owned. She wanted you turned against me and over to her. How can you trust a single word she says? What evidence has she even put forward that I did anything like that? How do you know she didn't do it herself, and prematurely covered her tracks by pinning the blame on me before you even fully knew who I was?" Trevor bows his head and begins to cry. "I...I can't believe...that..." Trevor whimpers. "Yes you can. I have actual physical evidence of what Charlotte did, and it's in this document Daniel Cross found at Chaemirah's base way back when." Adam says, taking a folder out of his pocket, unfolding it and reading it out loud.

"War Document 30HR31: Today, the War has ended, but what ended it was kept hidden from the public. As it turned out, both the U.S. and Rushia were afraid of the Vampire Queen, and hoped to one day unite against their common threat despite all of their differences." Adam finishes. "This is the girl you love, Trevor. A mass murder, a liar, a psychopath, a threat to the Earth. How...how can you love someone like that?" Trevor was crying harder, trying to keep his glare fixed on Adam. "How can you love that...monster? Is it because she showed you kindness when you met at school? Of course she did! She was baiting you and you nearly fell for her trap. You think I'm lying about her? Find. Evidence." Adam finishes, as he walks away from Trevor and leaves the room.

Charlotte keeps running until she sees a depowered Crocatoan tank. "This has to be it..." Charlotte remarks as she runs into the tunnel leading to Beta's room at the top of the mountain. She notices the remains of another tank, along with those of many Crocatoan. Did Adam do all this? By himself? Charlotte keeps going until she smells molten metal and turns to see what looked like some sort of factory with a metal bridge suspended over a pool of molten metal. On the other side of that bridge...was Adam.

Charlotte grabs Adam's sword, ignoring the pain, and drives the remaining piece of Valerie's sword through Adam's sword arm, before kicking him away in order to knock him back and disarm him. "You are quick..." Adam says, as Charlotte hears beeping and sees a UV bomb on her arm. "No!" Charlotte yelps, as she begins slashing at the bomb with her sword while Adam watches, beginning to pull Valerie's sword out of his shoulder. Adam then sees Charlotte running at him and grabbing him by the face with the arm the UV bomb is on. Charlotte tries to shield her face with her sword as the bomb explodes, melting part of Adam's face along with Charlotte's arm. "AGH!" Charlotte screams, as she kicks Adam back, feeling her foot collide with something metal. Adam stumbles backwards but regains his balance before he can fall, while still pulling the sword out of his arm. Charlotte tries to run to him, but is held back by something. She turns to see Adam's chain-kunai weapon binding her to the bridge.

"I knew you were coming, and we've already done this before." Adam says as he rushes at Charlotte to slash her while she was slashing the chains, cutting her across the back. Charlotte yells in pain and barely blocks the next slash while trying to headbutt Adam, who leaps back and takes out a Kurkuri. Before Adam can use it, the condition of his arm causes him to accidentally drop it in the molten metal pool below. "You are learning." Adam remarks as he runs at Charlotte to slash at her again, Charlotte blocking the slash with the handle of her sword before quickly swinging it to break Adam's katana in half. "*She was smart to get rid of Tufelkante. I'll have to find that later...*" Adam thinks to himself as he leaps backwards, the sword's two halfs exploding, freeing Charlotte while knocking her off the bridge right when she grabs the edge of it and starts to pull herself up. "However...I can obviously use breakable weapons to my advantage." Adam says out loud, while throwing a silver combat knife at Charlotte's hand to paralyze it. "Gah!" Charlotte exclaims as Adam takes out a rope and begins to tie it around her neck.

Trevor looks around and notices what look like autopsy reports on the walls in the direction Adam pointed at. Trevor was able to see that everyone in those reports was killed by a vampire. "*Who am I kidding...?*" Trevor thinks to himself, as he growls. He didn't know who to trust anymore, what to trust. This must be what a hero has to endure... "...But I'm no hero." Trevor whimpers. "I'm just...just a scared teenage boy who's around people way out of my league." Trevor then looks at a mirror and notices something...

...the ropes binding him weren't in it.

"Wh-what? I was never...even being held captive, here?" Trevor demands warily, as he begins to slowly stand up and waits for something to happen, but nothing happens to him. He sees a gun and shakily grabs it, beginning to cry again. He then walks out of the room he was in and through the tunnels weaving through the mountains.

"You wanna know something, Miss Nechita?" Adam asks Charlotte, who was growling at him. "When I became a vampire hunter, the one who initated me for the job asked me...why. Why did I want this dangerous job? I told him that I had unfinished business. And well, my other teacher explained it better as I was able to get all the weapons I needed...to have a perfect advantage against you." "That's a horrible way...to take advantage of what...is supposed to be a just system." Charlotte replies, making Adam laugh as he takes a few steps back. "You're calling the organization whose sole purpose is to exterminate YOUR people just?! You're definitely not fit to be queen." Adam says. "You don't know anything about politics, you don't have a country to rule. You're fourteen years old. Honestly, the only thing that makes you this species' 'queen' is the fact that you are the daughter of Dracula and Dracula is dead, and even that's iffy considering the rest of your family." Charlotte's eyes widen in shock. "H-how did you--" Charlotte is cut off by Adam, who replies with "You thought I wouldn't find out? I was already researching your family when you first came to school. I was fascinated by the fact that you were a vampire." Adam then chuckles. "I bet you're wondering why I've been monologuing." Adam says. "It's so that you could get back up."

Sure enough, Charlotte was standing back atop the bridge, holding the silver combat knife in her hand before throwing it at Adam, who dodges right when Charlotte grabs Adam by the neck and knees him in the stomach. Adam coughs up some blood while also whacking Charlotte across the face with Silver Knuckles on, before roundhouse kicking her to the ground. Adam lashes at Charlotte with a whip that had a knife blade at the end, Charlotte dodging and then blocking before she runs to slash Adam at the leg. Adam chuckles and slashes at Charlotte, who leaps back and is met by a flurry of shurikens. Charlotte begins blocking them until the pain in her sword arm from the stake Valerie drove into it resurges and she drops her sword, the last few shurikens slashing at her in multiple areas, including the Femoral Arteries in her legs. Charlotte screams in agony as she falls to the ground on the other side of the bridge, Adam walking towards her and holding a Wakizashi with a wooden handle and a silver blade.

Trevor keeps walking along the corridors, ready to shoot whatever he sees on sight, or at least he hoped he was, as the gun shook in his hands. "I don't know...what I can be anymore..." Trevor whispers to himself, as he continues walking. He thinks he hears something and immediately fires from the gun, seeing the dead body of a rat soon after. Trevor's shaking hands drop the gun as he just starts running along the corridor, trying to find a way out of this base.

Charlotte was on the ground, breathing heavily, as Adam stands over her. "I know how to keep you alive while taking chunks out of your body. I could reduce you to merely a brain and keep you in a vat if I wanted to." Adam says. He then brings the Wazikashi down on Charlotte, who blocks with her own Wazikashi, which appeared to be more chrome-colored. "As I expected." Adam remarks. "Not only did you have that weapon, but...without your dominant hand holding it, you can't apply the right pressure in the right area. I equalized the pressure at the last second and that is why my Wazikashi is not broken in two." Adam then leaps back as slash marks appear across his and Charlotte's arms. "We missed each other that time..." Adam thinks to himself, as Charlotte, beginning to heal, struggles to the ground and runs in an unbalanced manner at Adam, who blocks each and every slash she tries to strike him with. Adam then kicks Charlotte in the stomach to send her back and throws the Wazikashi through a loop at the bottom of the handle of Charlotte's, revealing a cable on the Wazikashi that he was grabbing. Adam yanks the cable downwards to make the Wazikashi go up, forcing Charlotte's Wazikashi out of her hand as Charlotte quickly grabs Adam's Wazikashi and runs to slash at him with it. Adam blocks with his arms, his suit and light armor protecting him for a bit before being cut. Charlotte makes sure to grab at Adam's arm while twisting it right when she feels a searing pain on her other arm and notices Adam's Wazikashi melting as if it had acid inside of it.

"AAAAGH!" Charlotte shrieks as she drops the Wazikashi and throws Adam over her and into the Crocatoan Dragon's room, the room of course being empty. Adam lands on his feet and rights himself as Charlotte runs to punch him, Adam grabbing her fist and trying to twist her arm, while punching her in the face. Charlotte tries to punch Adam with her other arm, but the pain causes her to falter just long enough for Adam to grab it and kick Charlotte in the stomach again. Adam finally rips Valerie's sword out of his shoulder and drives it into Charlotte's stomach, while kicking her to some sort of mechanical orb, black with yellow lights like everything else the Crocatoan had. "*Is that...?*" Charlotte thinks deliriously to herself as she then rips Valerie's sword out of her stomach and stabs it into the orb. "*That's a bomb.*" Adam thinks, as he runs at Charlotte to kick her in the side of her head. Charlotte then kicks Adam upwards and grabs the bomb, lifts it over the head with difficulty, and lobs it at him. Adam moves his head to angle himself enough to dodge it, but the bomb hits the wall and explodes, sending the entirety of the Crocatoan Dragon's room crashing down with Adam in it. Charlotte leaps out of the room once a big enough crack appears as the mountain collapses and the avalanche settles at the foot of the once-great mountain.

"Woah!" Trevor yelps as he tries to stay upright. He notices the newly created exit and begins to hop down the mountain, wincing from his previous injuries. Charlotte lands on the top of the rubble and lands through a hole to look for Adam in order to finish him off. Trevor notices the rubble and runs towards it when he feels his foot collide with something. "Ow!" Trevor yells, as he looks down to kick it and sees that it was a cat skull with the name 'Dori' carved into its forehead. "He...she...Charlotte!" Trevor yells, running closer to the rubble hill.

Charlotte keeps walking through the pile of rubble and following a trail of blood she could smell to try and find Adam. She hears labored breathing and turns to see Adam with a lot of his suit destroyed. A metal rod was stabbing through his lung, stomach and arm as a rock was on his burnt eye. Another rock with metal rods and scaffolding in it was crushing Adam's legs. Despite all of this, Adam was smiling, blood running down his cheek. "Well, what are you going to do now. Charlotte?" Adam asks. "How will you end this cycle?"

"...The only way I can." Charlotte answers, her voice cracking. "For everything you've done, I am going to kill you." Charlotte sees her sword and picks it up, before brandishing it at Adam's neck. "You won't heal if I cut your spine." Charlotte says. "Then be done with it already. I've already won. I showed Trevor just how bad you are, I helped him make up his mind, I turned you into a monster. I...won." Adam replies. "Just shut up and die, you miserable son of a bitch." Charlotte answers.

"DON'T DO IT!"

Both Adam and Charlotte turn in shock to see Trevor standing there, holding Dori's skull and shaking, sweating an breathing heavily. "Dammit..." Adam growls, sounding genuinely frustrated and distraught. "I planned for everything...I placed that where it shouldn't have been...but I thought we would...fight on the other side of that bridge. I miscalculated." Trevor walks towards Charlotte slowly and warily. "Please...you don't have to kill him. That's what he wants." Trevor says, his voice cracking. "P-please...prove th-that you aren't th-the monster...Adam's m-making you out to b-be." Charlotte was shaking too, as she listens to Trevor's words. "P-please...please sh-show me...the girl I...I fell in...I--" Charlotte stabs her sword into the ground, breaking down into tears. She walks shakily and warily to hug Trevor, who hugs her too, crying and shaking as well.

"Well, I guess that's good..." Adam remarks, Charlotte and Trevor turning to glare at him. "...You...you have each other, at least..." "What are you talking about?" Trevor asks, as they see Adam take a gun out of his pocket. "You might remember...that barely anyone knows my real identity. All they will know...is that Franklin black was murdered, with the DNA and fingerprints matching...Trevor Dillard." Adam answers, as Charlotte sees his glove resembling Trevor's hand. "No, don't!" Charlotte yells, as Adam places the gun to his head. "I'm not one hundred percent sure this'll kill me, but It'll be...close enough." Adam says. "Wait! Don't--" Trevor is cut off as Adam fires and his head flops limply to the side, his arm flopping limply to the ground with the gun bouncing a few feet between them. Charlotte coats her hand in dust and picks the gun up, as she and Trevor begin to walk out of the mountain, greatly shaken to the point of near-collapse by Adam's apparent suicide.

The next time Trevor awoke was in a hospital bed with a monitor beeping beside him and Charlotte sitting on a chair and looking down at him with a worried expression. "Trevor...?" Charlotte asks. "Charlotte...?" Trevor asks woozily. Charlotte smiles for the first time since She first fought Adam. "You're alive. I'm so glad." Charlotte says softly, placing her hand on Trevor's, making him blush. "What...happened...?" Trevor asks. "The stress...and your injuries...you passed out, and I nearly did, too. I brought you here as fast as I could." Charlotte answers. "You'll need a few weeks to recover, and I won't leave your side that whole time." Charlotte then bends down to kiss Trevor softly, as the heart monitor begins to beep faster.

Crith, Rosette, Connor, Khaldun, Daniel and Maria were all also in hospital beds, Sabrina watching over Crith. Krincax was laughing at Khaldun. "I could have done it in seconds! And I never got to get Nameless like you promised!" Krincax shouts. "Yeah, sorry...please don't shout at a patient in a hospital." Khaldun replies.

## Epilogue

Marcus was walking along a dimly lit sidewalk, thinking about everything that's happened. "*Vampires are horrible creatures, but I should expand my protection and start targeting actual monsters.*" Marcus thinks, looking up at the night sky, crying as he thought about his family.

"The internal damage to his organs is massive, and so is the damage he received on the outside of his body. His previous bionics failed him miserably, and he was nearly killed in such a cheap manner." The surgeon wearing Nazi-esk armor walks over to stand over Reinhardt, who was badly injured and wrapped in casts, hooked up to life support. The REICH surgeon then walks over to stand with some REICH scientists and engineers. "Fortunately for our leader, REICH knows now how to defeat death."

The blueprints for some sort of exo-armor were on the computer, as a heart monitor beeped in the background.