Post by jackalope on Jul 10, 2011 23:47:56 GMT -5
Ultimate S.H.A.D.E. #3
The Beast in Bangkok pt.2
The Beast in Bangkok pt.2
Abandoned Temple of Phra Rahu, Thailand
The red light lingers on the creature as it hangs. Its long, clawed feet gripping into the stonework above, leaving visible crack. The dark brown fur moves in and out. It twists slightly making the long pale skin covering the long distorted fingers that made up its wings.
Monkeyman breathes out, realising he'd being holding it in. The creature twitches again. He whispers at Robotman. “Turn off the light.”
Robotman whispers back. “Don't worry, bats don't have great vision, besides, red light is one of the colours that is least likely to awaken a sleeping subject.” Monkeyman looks at him, mouth downturned, annoyed. Robotman takes a step back and flicks the light off. A rattling sound echoes about them, as the piece of granite, Robotman kicks as he steps back, hits the back wall and spins, circling around on its rough edge and then finally landing on a flat edge. The three S.H.A.D.E. agents stood in silence staring into the darkness, waiting for some sort of reply to the clatter.
Eventually Monkeyman speaks again. “Turn the light back on.”
“Not yet.” Frankenstein says in hushed tones.
“No turn it back on.” Monkeyman calls.
“Fine” There is a click and the three look to the spot highlighted by the red light. Cracked stones, empty. A screech. Robotman is knocked off balance, giant claws grabbing his metal body a throwing him into a nearby wall. The sound of the beating wings is momentous. Frankenstein jumps but the creature is gone back into the darkness. Another screech and Frankenstein finds himself pulled off the ground. He cracks a light rod and holds it out. The creatures hideous giant bat face turns away from it, launching up then dropping him into another wall.
The light from the light stick only emanates out so far before fading into darkness, and the creature moves out back into the darkness. Monkeyman reaches to the light stick hanging from his belt. He jumps around trying to gage if the creature approaches. He cracks the light stick. He squints holding out the glowing tube. He grabs the toothpick out from his mouth and whispers a word under his breath. The toothpick is replaced by a staff.
“Monkey.” Frankenstein calls.
“What?” Monkeyman rotates again waving the glow-stick.
“Stop moving.”
Monkeyman stops. He stares out in to darkness. He hears the scratching of claws against stone. A pebble drops down beside him. He looks up. The creature screeches directly at him, huge mouth opening revealing long, pointed, sharp teeth. It drops. Monkeyman rolls but isn't fast enough to not feel the long teeth penetrate the skin on his back. Frankenstein jumps on the creature. Wrestling it as it tried to shake him off and lift into the air again. It beats its enormous wings and leaps again, slamming Frankenstein into the stone ceiling. Robot shoots what looks like a bolas, which wraps around one of the creature's legs but it fails to slow it down.
Monkeyman pole-vaults off his staff, leaping off a nearby wall and smacking the creature in the head. It screeches again. Twisting and dropping to the ground it slams Frankenstein again. He loses his grip. Monkeyman hit the creature again but the creature seemed only angrier. It jumps, using one of its long arms to smack Monkeyman into the wall. Robotman shoots a number of darts in quick succession from a fold out mechanism that appears on his wrist. The darts hit the back of the wing, impaling the leathery membrane. The monstrous bat screams, turning at a furious speed and using both of its long wings to throw the living robot across the room.
There is a dull thud. The sound of the flat of a long sword hitting the back of the skull of a mutated manbat. The creature turns. Frankenstein stands brandishing the blade in both hands.
“Creature. I sense that which resides inside you. This battle is not needed.”
The creature moves backwards, using it folded wings as ungainly front legs. It bares its teeth. Behind Frankenstein, on the other side of the room Robotman clamours up.
“I am ok,” he calls.
Monkeyman stands, rubbing his head, “I'm ok too. Gods, it's been a while.” He leans on his staff, wresting his chin on its end. “What's it going to be batboy?”
The creature looks from one agent to another, to another, then back at Frankenstein. It backs up against the wall behind it. Frankenstein takes a step towards it.
The creature leaps, using the back wall as a surface to push off from. Frankenstein pulls his sword back, but the fury of the attack knocks him over. The creature flaps its wings. Monkey man jumps onto its back, grabbing the long pointed ears and pulling on them. The creature screams and flips backwards, forcing its passenger to drop. Robotman aims his arm at it. Another bolas fires out. This time the bolas is dead on and the weighted rope wraps itself around the winged limbs of the creature. Tangled, it slammed into the ground skidding along the stone floor.
“Quickly!” calls Monkeyman. Frankenstein pulls a rope from his shoulder and starts tying the creature. The Robotman helps, lifting it in order to get the rope underneath. Monkeyman ties a knot. “Tough bastard... Let’s get him out.” The beast struggles, the rope creaking as it tries to rip it free with its powerful limbs. Frankenstein and Robotman lift the creature. Monkeyman runs down the corridor ahead, towards the outside air.
The two Agents run, holding on tightly to the creature. As it hits sunlight its thrashing becomes uncontrollable. Its clawed feet kick out knocking Robotman over. Its foot pulled back enough to hook onto one of the binding ropes and sliced it, throwing it off and starting to unravel itself. Frankenstein drops the creature's biting head. The creature rolls onto its front, pulling the ropes apart and standing up on all four of its limbs. It hisses, turning about, looking at each of the agents.
Then it stops.
Its fearsome look drops away. It stares, mouth parted slightly. It stands, hesitant, breathing faster. It steps forward towards the blond woman.
Bride smoothly jabs its neck with a syringe. The creature swings its head and hisses at her, then falls on the ground convulsing, froth spewing from its mouth. The Brain steps in, delivering another jab to his chest. The creature pulls up its arms and screams. The length of its arms starts to shrink inwards, its long bat-like fingers becoming pale human fingers. The fur retreats into his skin, except for the messy brown mop on top of his head. His ears reduce down into two small rounded ears. He screams again but its pitch becomes lower, more painful, more human.
He lies naked on the ground, panting and nearly crying.
“Francine! Francine? Is that really you?” He tries to sit up, to look at the blond woman.
“No,” says the Face, taking off the blond wig. “I'm sorry Dr Kirk Langstrom; your wife is still dead.”
He lays back and starts sobbing, pulling himself into a ball. The agents stand around him. No one says anything.
Krung Thep Maha Nakhon (Bangkok)
Sun downs another bottle. “But do you have some sort of magic ointment or something? I really don't want to turn into a vampire just because I got bitten...”
Jules Brun shakes his head. “You're not going to turn into a vampire, Langstrom wasn't a vampire, he's a human with mutated vampire bat DNA hybridised within his metabolism.” He sips his beer. Kirk Langstrom nods his head. He is drinking some sort of local whisky, Sun agreed that he needed some of the stronger stuff. His eyes still look red and puffy. They've got him some clothes from the local markets and Jules brought his glasses from his lab in America. Jules smiles to himself. “The formula, so elegant, genius even. The perfect way of creating post-birth chimeras. I'm annoyed I didn't think of it.”
Kirk downs his glass and Sun refills it. “Not perfect. Francine died because of it.” Laura De Mille looks down at the table and sips her own beer. Bride touches her hand reassuringly. It was her job.
Frankenstein looks at the large mug of beer in front of him, then at Kirk. “You seemed to be seeking redemption here.” He takes a gulp of it, and opens his mouth a couple of times to get used to the sensation of the carbon bubbles. “There is an admirable quality in that.” His face remains neutral. Bride looks at it, thinking to herself: 'this is him trying to be kind'.
Sun laughs. “Yesss, you've been a busy boy. Not even the Thai government can complain when dead foreign paedophiles start turning up around the country.” He picks up his bottle and clinks with Kirk's glass. “What I want to know if how you knew. In that giant manbat fuck-off form how did you know you were hunting kiddie fiddlers?”
Kirk looked at his glass, stretching one side of his mouth. “It was an instinct thing, I guess. I could smell it on them, hear it in their heartbeat, sense it inside them.”
Frankenstein places his finished jug in front of him, cracking it slightly. “I have that,” he says smiling. The others look at him. His face becomes neutral once more. “I am sorry, that was, inappropriate.” Sun cracks up laughing. Bride and Laura follow. Robert seems to make laughing noises from his voice box. Even Kirk smiles.
Once it dies down Sun turns to Kirk. “So what do you say? S.H.A.D.E. could use a mother-fucking Manbat on the team.”
“You are both powerful and intelligent. I would be honoured to have you as a warrior working with me.” Frankenstein did not look at anyone. Laura nods looking closely at Kirk. Jules looked at Laura and bit the inside of his cheek.
Bride talks, “Look we're doing what you're doing, except we're a team, and we don't have to go back to an abandoned temple to hide. We're even following the same leads.”
Sun nods. “It's called S.P.I.D.E.R.; it's some sort of organised crime group. It's been around for years but only recently it seems to be getting powerful. It has eight arms- like a spider- drugs, prostitution, extortion, arms, gambling and... three others, I can't remember. Anyway, each arm is run by a different crime lord, and they seem to be based worldwide. The prostitution ring stretches all through Asia, Europe, Africa and America.”
Robert picks up. “In America it's different from here; they have para-humans working with them. We could use your help in stopping it.”
Dr Kirk Langstrom looks around the table at the strange assortment of misfits that sat around the table.
“I'm in.”
Faulks, Washington, America
Stella wakes to the sound of tapping on her window. She sits up. Her heart beats faster as she rolls out of bed and pads, barefooted, over to her bedroom window. She waits until she hears the wrapping sound again, just to make sure she didn't dream it, but no, she hears it again. She slowly pulls back the curtain.
It's him. Bernard. His pale silvery flawless skin almost glows in the moonlight. He smiles with his red full lips revealing his perfect smile. His dark brooding eyes catch hers, and she knows that he is looking right through her, into her heart and soul. He points down at the latch. She nods, flicking the latch open and slowly, as to not wake her parents, drags the window up. Then he is there, real, like some crazy, amazing dream, right in front of her, smouldering with desire. Her stomach feels funny, like it’s full of butterflies being chased by unicorns.
He finally speaks. “Aren't you going to invite me in?” His voice is slightly gruff, deeper than the other fifteen or sixteen year old boys in her class, but she knew he was different. The way he looked at her.
“So that's true? You have to be invited in?” She wants to work this out. Deep down she knew they had to be real, all those legends, all those stories.
He smiles just barely. “Why don't you ask me in and find out?”
She feels the blood rush to her face. She's so embarrassed. Why did he choose her? She isn't the prettiest girl, or the coolest. Some might say she was the clumsiest girl, and she rated herself good at sarcasm. She almost stutters when the words form. “Please come in.”
He smiles, revealing those amazingly perfect white teeth again. Lowering himself into the room, gracefully, like a cat, his eyes never leave hers. He shuts the window behind him.
“How did you get up here, we're on the second floor?” He shakes his head, placing one of his fingers lightly on her lips. She can't help but think how smooth he is.
“Stella.” Just to hear him say her name sends shivers down her spine. “I've tried so hard to stay away, but there is something in the way you smell, the way I can't tell what you're thinking, the way you make bitingly sarcastic remarks. You've drawn me here; I can no longer stay away.” She nods; she feels exactly the same way. “It's like fate. Your soul pulls me here. Your heartbeat calls to me.” He comes in close to her, his lips inches from hers. “But it scares me, the strength of this feeling I have for you. It’s just so strong, I don't know if I started whether I could ever stop.” She's trembling all over. She feels the breath cool on her neck. She closes her eyes.
“Do it.”
He pulls back looking at her directly in her eyes. “Are you sure?” She nods. He smiles, wrapping his arms around her. There is the softest sound as fangs extend in his mouth. He lifts his head back.
The sound of glass shattering interrupts. Stella and Bernard turn to see a tall blue skinned woman with long black hair standing up on her head. The woman regards them both. “Dear, you can do better...”
The bedroom door busts open. Another blue creature enters, a man, holding a long clean sword in one hand. “Bernard McMullen, also known as Daren Gale, also known as Thaddeus Wentwoods the second. You are required to come with us.”
“No, you don't understand,” Stella shouts at the monsters, “I know what he is, but I love him! We love each other.” Bernard hugs her from behind, holding her tight.
The Bride shakes her head, “Leave the girl out of this Bernard. You are hereby charged with five counts of statutory rape of a minor, eight counts of human trafficking, four counts of murder, and one count of dodging child support. One way or another, this ends tonight.”
Stella looks at back at him confused, but he grabs her neck. Suddenly his grip is strong, and almost painful. She struggles but can barely move. Suddenly her nervousness feels more like fear. Bernard shouts at them. “They consented! You heard her, she consented!” He moves sideways, dragging Stella back with him, trying to keep an eye on both of the blue monsters.
From behind Frankenstein Robotman enters the room. “I sleep drugged her parents, so we shouldn't be interrupted.” He looks around at the situation.
Frankenstein takes a single step towards the vampire. “She does not know that which she consents to. And also, she is not of age, you are more than a century older than her.”
Bride puts her hand on her pistol. “What is it with men and younger women?”
The vampire hisses, picking Stella up and throwing her at the Bride. As the body flew the vampire dives at the windows. Frankenstein pulls out his steam-pistol and shoots but the undead creature has already disappeared through the hole. The Bride catches the girl and stands her up on her feet. She touches the girl's face. “It's ok, boys can be jerks. One day you'll find someone nice.” Turning, she jumps out of the window after it.
The vampire runs. His heightened hearing picks up the sound of boots chasing him fading behind him. His supernatural speed carries him forth. He has run before, to other lives, away from his past. New lives would are easy enough to restart, he's done it plenty times before. He jumps, letting the momentum carry him into the trees. He quickly scales it, and takes one last look at the town he would never see again... but there is something else in its place, something approaching. It beats its wings, only feet from him. A horrific giant bat.
The creature hits him, pushing him off the tree top and driving him all the way to the ground. The vampire looks up at it trembling, its thumb claws pinning him. The creature leans in and licks his cheek. It twists its head, analyzing him, as its monstrous voice shudders through him. “Clever boy. Crystallized sun blocker. Reflects majority of damaging light.” It sniffs. “Bet it even makes you sparkle.”
He looks at its beastly wings, and bat like visage. “Are you one of the elder blood?”
“Me?” The creature shakes its head. “I'm just the mother-fucking Manbat.”