Chapter 19: The Monster VS. ASP

Mira's screams could be heard from the hallway by Shadow and his party. They sounded horrified and as if she was in pain. Shadow glanced over at Angel and Marcus, nodding at the door, then he disappeared into the wall.

Marcus wrestled open the door, tearing it almost off of its hinges. He ran in first, his recently reworked blaster leading the way. In front of him there was nothing but splotches of an orange colored goop. But he could still hear the shrieks of the other teams echoing hollowly. Hunter was screaming Mirage's name and Beast was yowling louder than anyone had heard before.

"Through there!" Tambor yelled. Between her hands she held a huge ball of electricity that snapped and crackled as she balanced it precariously. She was first through the partition and she sent the ball, which had only grown bigger the longer she held it, toward the orange goop that was pulsing on the ground.

Near it, and unmoving, Mirage lay. Her head was bent at an impossible angle and her eyes were wide and sightless. Nearby and beating at the tentacled monster, Hunter fought with his bare hands. His blaster lay useless on the floor near his feet, the power reading beeping and flashing red. His screams of Mirage's name were heart breaking and Angel ran to his side, firing her blaster at the beast. She was slicing hunks of orange goop off the beast and the thing was growling louder, jerking with every strike of electricity that hit him.

"Get Mira and get her away from this thing!" Angel shouted at Hunter, covering his movements with the steady silver streams from her blaster. Marcus joined her, standing shoulder to shoulder as the thing tried to attack. The first two ASP teams had backed the thing into a corner and now someone was firing at the thing from the other side.

Tinman touched Marcus' shoulder. "You know what to do." He was silver, his skin hard as metal, his body shining in the dim light. He nodded at Lelia and at Tambor, waiting until each held a ball of electricity before he stepped fearlessly up to the beast, thrusting his metal hand into one of its many eyes. "Now!" he shouted.

The electricity hit him, both from Angel and Marcus as well as from Tambor and Lee. Sparks came off of him and his body jerked as the electricity surged from him, directly into the eye of the beast. His teeth were gritted and for one second, he met Lee's eyes, smiling determinedly. "Again!"

The stream of electricity came from another source and Dianna stepped up next to the other two witches, her hands up. The beam that came from her hand was weak, but she was determined to help. Beast came up behind her, his furry body cradling hers. Dianna was exhausted and without his body holding hers, she would have fallen. She glanced up at him, murmuring her thanks and then sent another shaft at the beast.

"Don't give it a chance to recover," she told the other two witches, watching as their hands came up, one on either side of her, touching her arms, adding their Wiccan power to hers. Her beam grew wider with their help and Tinman, still sparking and jerking from the flow, stepped into the orange goop, becoming a human lightning rod and frying the ugly thing from the inside out.

Its growls grew frantic, its tentacles whipping at the air, trying to find a way to rid itself of the thing that was hurting it the most. Each time a tentacle came close to Tinman, Kit and Mage would fire their blasters and fry it before it could connect. Each member of the team was doing their best to kill the damn thing. It was working, the monster seeming to shrink with each jolt of electricity, the tentacles rolling up to try to protect the head of the beast. Most of them were now black and smoking, the scent of death, of sulfur and some other chemical, growing in the air.

Hunter had lifted Mirage in his arms, crying out as her head seemed to flop bonelessly against his arm. He pulled her against his chest, words of love flowing from his lips. He took her behind the other ASP teams, his heart breaking as he felt for a pulse. He knew there was no hope, he knew she was dead from the time she stepped in front of him, taking a hit from one of those wretched tentacles that had been meant for him.

She'd died for him and now all he could do was cry. He buried his head in her neck, tears flowing off his face and into her hair. How could she have done that? How could she have taken that blow? Didn't she know that without her, his life wasn't worth living?

He forgot about the beast, about the other members of ASP, about everything but the pain that was making him tremble. How was he going to survive without her? He didn't hear when the battle ended or the cries of triumph that came from the battle weary teams. He barely felt Angel's hand as it came down on his shoulder. But when Marcus tried to take Mira's body away from him, he snarled, his teeth snapping, his body uncoiling. His fist flew and Marcus took the blow, knowing the pain that was boiling inside of Hunter.

As quickly as he rose, he fell back to the floor, gathering her still warm body in his arms. "Don't touch her," he hissed. "Just ... don't." He looked up as Shadow knelt next to him. "She stepped in front of me. She took the hit that was meant for me. She's ... dead because of me. I love her, Shadow. How could she do that to me?"

Shadow rested a sympathetic hand on Mira's cheek, slowly closing her sightless eyes. His other hand touched Hunter's shoulder. "She died saving you, Hunter. Your life, your love, meant so much to her. After everything she went through before, do you think she wanted to live without you?"

"But ... but I'm bigger, I'm stronger. I could have survived..."

Dianna touched the back of Hunter's head. "No, Hunter, you wouldn't have."

"How do you know?" he began angrily, only to reach up and grab her hand to hold it against his cheek as his tears flowed harder. "I'm sorry," he sobbed.

"I know, Hunter." Dianna's eyes were full of tears as well as she gazed into Mira's beautiful face, still in death. "We'll miss her too."

Hunter nodded, his shoulders shaking as he tried to hold back the sobs that wanted to tear him apart. He couldn't let go of Mira, not his Mira with her sparkling blue eyes and crass mouth. She was the whole of his world, his center, his reason for being. Now she was gone.

"I ... I c-can't do this," he cried. "I can't let her go."

Then a bright white light, so intense to have him closing his eyes against it, filled the room.

Domino woke slowly, his head throbbing, his heart seeming to pound against his chest. The thirst was terrible, causing him to ache in every joint of his body. He sat up slowly, feeling the world spin once before settling down. "Where the fuck am I?"

He heard a growl from behind him and he spun, his eyes going to Nick and Arielle. They were growling and slathering, advancing upon him. Neither was in control of their faculties and both were a threat to him.

"Nicky, I don't want to have to hurt you. Come on, Nicky. We're friends, remember?"

For a moment it almost seemed as if his plea had struck a chord in the vampire. But that moment was swift and fleeting and now he seemed even more determined to make Domino his next meal.

Arielle was even scarier. Her eyes were blank as she moved toward him, her hands in front of her, her fingers curved into claws. Her lips were parted and awful shrieking growls were coming from her lips even as her own blood dripped from a wound in her head to fall into her mouth. She snapped her teeth at him, acting rabid and sending Domino to run to the door.

It was locked.

Domino blinked and yanked at the door. It was of heavy metal, the lock being a solid steel bar built into the metal frame. He yanked again and felt the knob bend in his hands but the lock didn't budge. He was trapped in a room he couldn't remember entering with two vampires that were weirded out on some kind of drug that wanted him to feed them. "Fuck!"

The word was heart felt and empathized every thing he was feeling at the moment. He was in a world of hurt and he had to figure something out.

Gazing at Arielle, he knew she would be the easiest of the two to take out and he searched the room for some kind of weapon. The furniture was sparse, none of it heavy enough to take on two full grown Vampires. He ducked under Nicky's arm, hitting him in the chest with a punch that should have knocked his friend down and across the room. Nicky barely grunted.

Domino spun, his leg coming up to smash against Arielle's chin. She did go down, but only momentarily. Domino watched, stunned, as Nicky turned to help Arielle up before turning back toward him. Maybe the secret of controlling Nicky was going to be Arielle. He sidestepped Nicky again, reaching out and pulling Arielle into his arms, turning her so she faced Nicky. He captured her arms, holding her far enough away from him to keep her from biting.

"Stop, Nicky. Stop or I break her neck! You know I can do it so if you don't want to see her dead, you'll stop right now."