Rescue mission
It was the dead of night here. The winding roads are empty of both cars and people. And everyone felt like collapsing. Even Samantha at this point, going back into her human form always felt like this. When she was a lizard she always felt so… happy and free. And when she was in her human form shit just kinda got real. She wasn’t a cartoon character that licked her eyeballs anymore.
“We will begin our search in the morning,” Luca announced, “he’s close, I can feel it. At this proximity we’ll be able to pinpoint his location. However for now, we are going to a hotel.” Luca opened his phone, typed a few things, and had everyone wait. After maybe 15 minutes two SUV’s arrived. The quad piled into one while Luca and the twins into the other. And they were off. In another 15 minutes the buildings transitioned from small quaint buildings to big boisterous tourism.
The lot of them stopped in front of a hotel that was absolutely massive, and must have been wildly expensive. But even so everyone got out of the cars and Luca led the way into the extravagant lobby. Luca began speaking in fluent Swahili to the receptionist, handed over what looked to be a black credit card, and after a few moments the transaction was complete. Bewildered, the quad piled into the elevator. And they shot all the way up to nearly the top floor. They exited and Luca led them to a series of doors.
“I will have my own suit, but the rest of you will have to pair up.” Luca said, handing out keycards, “order whatever room service you like, I will foot the bill.” And with that he disappeared into his own suite.
Samantha and Aloice had their own room, the twins of course shared a room, leaving James and Lydia in their room. James, abused the room service power, and got drunk as hell. He ended up in the bathtub with an empty bottle of liquor and Lydia had to fish him out and throw him on the bed. Aloice and Samantha had a perfect coexistence in their room, both of them falling asleep right away.
In the morning James woke up very upset with himself, and Lydia begrudgingly took care of him. Water, breakfast, even convincing him to take a shower. They did all get zombie guts on them yesterday. For the espionage that was happening today everyone was given suitable clothes. Jeans and t-shirts that would ensure they blended in.
“I’ve located him.” Luca announced while they rode the elevator down. “He is in an abandoned schoolhouse. There are an unknown number of enemies. We must be swift and decisive in this attack. The four of you should be powerful enough now to use at least a partial extent of your powers.”
“Do you have any leads on who is the one behind this?” James asked.
“I have reason to believe a group of dampires has him.” Luca answered, “we’ll be there soon.” There were a few minutes of Silence before the cars stopped, “we’ll be on foot now, less conspicuous.” Luca stepped out of the car, followed by the rest of the quad. The twins got out of the car behind them. Lydia shifted her backpack, her swords shifting uncomfortably in it. But carrying a backpack was better than open carrying swords.
The group traveled quietly with Luca at the head, their weapons safely hidden and a casual pace achieved. Luca stopped them when they reached a sidewalk bordered by a tall concrete wall. Luca went ahead, peaking around an entryway before returning.
“There’s quite a few of them.” Luca said
“Are your weapons up to it?” The Mina asked. Lydia nodded as well as Aloice. But Samantha pulled out her staff. It was honestly just an oak staff, and its tree thing wasn’t really useful in a fight. Mina took the staff and reached into her bag, pulling out a silver sphere. She uttered a few quiet words and the top of the staff reshaped around the silver sphere. “That’s enchanted silver, very effective against the undead.”
“Then let’s go.” James said, still a little bit grumpy from his hangover.
“James, wait”.” Luca said m, putting a hand across his chest to stop him from advancing, “I’ve been watching you, I have an idea.” Luca reached into his pack, pulling out a simple leather cord and some wire. After a second Luca produced an odd looking necklace.
“What is it?” James asked, his mind an infuriating flutter as he, every so casually, lightly brushed his fingers in the place that Luca had touched him.
“It’s a holy symbol, if my theory is correct, this could help increase your abilities.” Luca said. It was difficult to tell from the crude construction but it appeared to be some kind of flower. James shrugged and put it on. Immediately he felt something. A surge of his full power coming to him in the mundane world. “Feeling better?” Luca asked with an eyebrow raised.
“Yea, amazing.” James replied with a smile, his hangover now gone.
“Let’s go, we’re going to bum rush them.” Luca said, “on my mark.”
Lydia expected Samantha to make a ‘Leroy Jenkins’ joke, but she just held onto her staff and rushed after everyone. Lydia supposed Samantha wasn’t in the joking mood, a nice change of pace from her being excited about being in the blasted lands. But she pushed the thought out of her mind as they rushed towards the dilapidated building beyond the concrete wall. Two guards wearing Kevlar standing out front ran forward once they noticed
Lydia and Luca dispatched them quickly, following behind once everyone was inside. Samantha and James were up next as they approached two more guards in body armor. They raised their guns but didn’t get a chance to use them as Samantha cracked one in the ribs with her staff and James knocked him on the head really well with his mace. Further into the large room there were two creatures. Probably dampires. They looked almost exactly like Nosfuratu. Long black robes, bald, wrinkly, pale, long fingernails, the works.
One of the twins scored a hit with a flaming spell that scorched the side of a dampire’s face. Lydia Leot forward and slashed at the dampire in front of her, opening a large wound on his front. Luca attacked the other one that was trying to run away, and it slipped from him. James’s, with a smug little smirk clicked his fingers. A little spark jumped from his hand and landed on the escaping Dampire. In an instant the creature was immolated by yellow flame.
“Twins, go right, hold off anyone coming this way.” Luca commanded, “the rest of you, follow me.” The twins nodded curtly and disappeared into the hallway opposite of where the rest were headed. All of the classrooms were empty of humans, with only overturned graffitied desks left in them. But in the last room Luca perked up, pointing to the door with his sword.
“I’ll go in, distract them with a thunder wave, take advantage of the disorientation.” Samantha projected onto everyone’s minds. they all nodded in response. Lydia kicked down the door and Samantha ran through. Four Dampire’s were in there, as well as a vampire. His wrists were chained together, and a large shackle was around his neck, connected by chain to the floor. He looked much like Luca, but younger and with a slightly rounder face. He had blue eyes and cranberry red hair.
Samantha rushed in, slamming the but of her staff into the ground. A wave of energy blasted out from her and sent two of the Dampire’s flying into the wall. The other two who were standing guard ran forward. But Luca and James intercepted them.
Aloice entered the room, and made eye contact with the vampire on the floor. To Aloice it was like the most rom com anime love at first sight song began to play. And to the vampire on the floor he felt just as smitten. But Aloice turned away and splattered the brains of a dampire all over the brick wall. The remaining Dampire that Samantha was facing slashed at her, tearing her shirt and scoring across her chest. She yelled in pain, but quickly retaliated by swinging her staff. The somber ball smashed into the Dampire’s Jaw, breaking it gruesomely and sending him lifeless to the floor.
The remaining Dampire’s fought valiantly, but they were no match for Luca, a full power James, and Lydia. The moment it was safe Luca was at his brother's side. Using some kind of spell Luca managed to unlock the shackles and his little brother was free.
“Hey big bro.” He said, oddly cheerily. He was wearing just a T-shirt and jeans with a red letterman’s jacket over it. Although the jacket was really torn. But he looked unharmed. “Thanks for coming to save me.” He threw his arms around the taller vampire.
“Of course Nico, but I don’t deserve all the thanks, this man here is the one who found your bloodstone.” Luca stepped out of the hug and motioned to Aloice. Aloice nervously stepped forward.
“I like your hair, it’s like the opposite of Hatsune Miku.” The rouge said, standing stock still like a statue.
“HATSUNE MIKU!” He shouted excitedly, “I LOVE HATSUNE MIKU!”
“Miku's name is written with three stacked lines and what looks like a backwards English J in japanese and so 3 is from the 3 lines in "Mi" and the second character is ku which sounds like ‘of 9’ "ku". 39 is pronounced as sankyuu, sounds like the way Japanese people say thank you when speaking in English and that's why you can often find both 39 and thank you in Miku songs from Japan.” Aloice rattled off.
“Oh dear god.” Luca sighed as the two launched into talking about various random things. The exit was much better than the entrance. They didn’t have many people guarding the place so they’d basically gotten everyone on the way in and any stragglers the twins got. Luca, satisfied with their safety, called some cars and everyone made their way back to the hotel. It was Saturday night now, and they would take planes home in the morning.
Because of the extra person everyone reshuffled rooms. Samantha and Lydia in one room, aloice and Nico in another, the twins in their own, and then Luca and James. Lydia went down to the hotel pool with the bikini she bought in town, Samantha decided to join her, wearing a black m one piece swimsuit. Lydia was lounging in a floaty when Samantha arrived.
“So, how’re you doing?” Samantha asked, dipping her feet in the water.
“I'm doing alright. Just relaxing.” Lydia answered, sounding a little bored.
“Cool cool… I just wish I could go all lizard here. It feels kind of freeing.” Samantha sighed, dipping further into the pool, “if it was up to me I’d be a lizard all the time and fight zombies always.”
“Of course you would.” Lydia groaned, something bubbling up inside her.
“What is that supposed to mean?” Samantha asked, taking offense at Lydia’s tone.
“Yea, of course you want to forget this place, because you don’t get to be a lizard here and you have to go to college. Did you ever have any thought of what you wanted to do outside of this? Outside of risking your life?”
“Lydia, where is this coming from?”
Lydia got off the floaty, facing Samantha as she stood in the water. “It came from you in the blasted lands! That was fucking terrifying and you just brushed it off like it was another silly little adventure. And you ignore everything in your real life! How often have you seen Johnny? How often have you given the earth some time since we got to the Starside?”
“Maybe I don’t like the earth.” Samantha huffed.
“You have people that love you there! You have a home there! Do you not mourn the life you had before all of this?” Lydia was practically physically steaming now.
“I had no life Lydia! My dads never home and I was left to take care of Johnny, ME. I’ve dumpster dived and starved to keep that kid fed and happy! I love him to pieces but I’m tired Lydia! I need to figure out who I am! And maybe risking my life fighting zombies is just who I am!”
“Then I suppose you’re just someone who doesn’t care about anything, even yourself!” Lydia growled, getting out of the pool. Lydia on her way out slammed her fist onto a wall, cracking the tile as she did. The moment she was gone though she began to regret her words. But she couldn’t take them back now. Samantha was just left dumbfounded and confused. She thought everyone liked doing this. But now she was thinking, what would she actually want to do with her life given the chance in the mundane world.
Oblivious to any quarrel between friends Aloice and Nico talked and talked and talked. Both of them were fairly acrobatic and performers so they were showing each other moves and techniques. Although as the night wore on it became more and more like Nico watching as Aloice showed off. Nico tried desperately for hours to flirt, be suave and subtle. But all of that bounced off of Aloice’s skull as he talked about full metal alchemist. And finally after hours and hours of this Nico realized he had to be blunt.
“…ok so glutton has like a portal in his stomach which is why he eats so mu-“ but Aloice was cut off by Nico standing and speaking.
“Aloice I would like to have sex with you.” Nico proclaimed. Aloice was, shockingly, stunned into silence. Although it only lasted a few moments.
“Sure!” Aloice said excitedly.
“Awesome sauce!” Nico did a little happy spin before practically tackling Aloice with a deep kiss. The rest is not difficult to imagine.
The room over James was in a similar predicament. Luca wasn’t wearing a shirt and had just finished in the shower, meaning his hair was damp and sticking to his muscular body. James couldn’t help but stare. Luca of course noticed.
“How are you holding up James.” Luca asked in his eternally soft and sultry voice.
James, feeling wildly bold with the newfound power coursing through him said “I’m feeling pretty good right now.” James bit his lip lightly and looked Luca up and down.
“Ah, I see.” Luca approached, “but I suppose you could be feeling better.”
“I do suppose I could be.” James smiled as he stood to meet Luca halfway. They just stood close to eachother for a long while. Until James closed the distance and kissed him. It was a loud night for downstairs neighbors to say the least.