7Chapter Five
At the S.T.R.I.K.E. headquarters, Blade and some of the Bloodpack and Nightstalkers had already made it, arriving through its secretive entrance and marching through its corridors and hallways. Soon enough, they made it to the main hall, where several other superheroes, agents, and other personnel either stood about waiting and conversing with one another, or mere busy sitting down and concentrating on working on computer keyboards and monitor screens.
In the centre of the hall was a circular table with sixteen seats surrounding it, some of which were occupied by a couple of superheroes: Captain Britain, Psylocke, Elsa Bloodstone, Meggan Puceanu, Pete Wisdom, Excalibur, Spitfire, Union Jack, Lance O'Hunter, and Marvelman. Blade took one of the empty chairs and sat down upon it.
"I'm sure at leats many of you folks are up to date with the situation here", Blade quickly addressed.
"Indeed we are", Captain Britain nodded. "If even our metropolitan police are at a loss when investigating such disappearances, then this must mean something really serious that requires all of us".
"And even now the situation seems to be getting somewhat and even stranger", Excalibur revealed. "More people are missing! Including a few various superheroes as well".
"More?" Marvelman questioned.
"Nash Salvato, Nico Minoru, Amelia Chen, America Chavez, Annabelle Riggs, and Aura Charles to name a few and to be exact", Faisa Hussain, aka Excalibur listed off. "We had interviewed some of their close friends about wherever and whenever any of them had last seen these people".
"And have we uncovered anything?" Blade asked.
"In the case of Annabelle for instance, she was last seen just outside the UCL Institute of Archaeology", Lance explained. "And wherever she had gone, she left behind this". He then produced a slightly bent pair of glasses with dirty lenses from his pocket and and placed it upon the table as most of the sitting members leant slightly forth to closely observe and examine the object. "And I'm pretty sure she wouldn't just leave something like this on a random bench without any legit reason".
"Unless someone else took it off her", Blade theorised.
"That's a possibility", Lance agreed before looking to Elsa Bloodstone and Jacqueline Falsworth, aka Spitfire. "Spitfire, Miss Bloodstone, I'm having you two join Blade in the investigation".
"Gladly, sir", Elsa stood up and nodded, as did Spitfire.
"Who else have we got with us today?" Captain Britain asked.
"We also got Domino, Rogue, Valkyrie, Alloy, X-23, Honey Badger, Victoria Montesi, and Karolina Dean, among others, searching into this as well as we speak", Lance answered. "They've all offered up some help for us on this case".
"You wouldn't suppose this could be yet another scheme by, say, Doctor Doom or Mastermind or The Leader?" Pete Wisdom guessed.
"If so, then they would've offered out some ransom to the public", Union Jack replied. "Plus, whoever it was must've taken down the likes of Miss America and Nico Minoru quite easily".
"Well we may need all the help we can get for this", Lance continued stating the obvious. "Something's clearly off with this and we gotta find out just what it is, and whoever's behind it".
With all that, Spitfire and Elsa Bloodstone gathered with Blade and the other hunters before they left the headquarters together. Lance Hunter, Captain Britain, and the rest of the heroes looked on, calm, stern, and confident in their fellow peers. Most of them mayn't know the truth behind these lost ones, but deep down, Blade had a pretty good of who or at least what may be behind such, he just needed to find proof and evidence.
Meanwhile, joining in on the search was a young adult girl with light-auburn hair tied into a plaited ponytail around the shoulder. She a caped supersuit with colours of dark-blue, bright-red, and gold boots and trims all about. Most notably were her Quantum Bands, a pair of thick gold and sapphire bracers wrapped around her forearms. She flew around quietly through the city, just a few feet above the street ground, looking down at the mostly empty area, as if either evacuated well in advance or more and more people had been gone missing as well.
Hearing a faint cluttered sound close by, the Quasar girl stopped mid-flight and descended down to her feet so she would get a closer look. Once she had landed in the seemingly empty street courtyard, she walked about and glanced around to see if any form of life was nearby and hiding. The clomping of her boots echoed and reverberated into the atmosphere with every footstep. But then, someone soon appeared into the corner of her eyes, causing her to turn and look.
There, standing by a lamppost with folded arms and a dry stare, was a tall, elegant, and majestic woman with pale skin and long straight white hair. Her rounded face had a notably pointed chin, crimson-red lips, and icy-blue eyes. She wore a black-and-red-ombre dress, along with shoulder plates, high heels, and accessories of matching gold. Such a sudden presence from a rather strange yet almost ravishing individual made the auburnette step back with near-fright.
"Oh hello there", the pale woman spoke. "Avril Kincaid, I presume".
"How you know my name?" Avril questioned with a startled tone under her voice. "Who even are you?"
"Name's Lia Marcil", the white-haired woman greeted herself, stepping towards towards Avril. "And I know about you".
"How much do you know?" Avril questioned further, trying to keep and maintain her stand with defiance.
"Quite a bit", Lia answered cryptically, looking down at Avril with admiration. "You're a very special-looking girl".
"So I am", Avril said back, glancing down at the other woman as well. "What else do you know about me?"
"You're an agent, searching for some missing people", Lia addressed, stepping even closer to Avril.
The auburnette lit up with eyes widened and lips gaped open just at how this blanchette would even give away what was going on and make herself a suspect. "You know where they are? Any clues or anything?"
"I can bring you to them if you want", Lia offered, her spellbinding eyes peering through into the young woman.
Avril found herself gazing back at that face and those eyes that dug into her very soul, her ears being filled with the voluptuous yet strangely comforting tones of that voice. Her mind was already starting to lose itself in attraction, she would've even easily forgotten to breath. Lia took a loose hold on Avril's plait and entangled it around and between her fingers, carefully yet playfully.
"So do you want that?" Lia asked. "You want me to take you, to bring you".
"Take me..." Avril spoke back, softly yet almost drearily. "Bring me..." Her eyes soon dilated before fluttering and closing altogether.
With the Quasar girl sinking slowly into her spell, Lia gently pulled her in for a deep and long touching of lips. Any and all tension had been wiped clean aside, as the two women and their bodies drew together into one. Tongues confronted each other like two cobras preparing for a savage duel to the death. Lia could feel the warmth of Avril within her cold hands and under her equally cold mercy, but she wanted it even warmer.
While Lia's right hand continued fiddling with Avril's plait, her left hand moved down towards right between Avril's thighs and began rubbing deeply without hesitation, much to the girl's stimulation. Avril soughed with trembled breaths as her legs tightened around the stimulating hand.
"Ooo, feeling wet for me already?" Lia snickered. "I tend to have that happen to most people, especially women".
Lia rubbed deeper and faster into Avril, building up a warm wet friction within her. Under mere primal instinct, Avril could only respond by bucking her pelvis just as much with every rubbing into her. Her eyes already began watering up before squeezing shut.
"Ngh, oh god, oh god!" Avril could only moan so much with her weakened voice.
"Oooyeah, come for me", Lia saw no need in stopping. "You know you want to..."
And deep down, Avril did want to so badly, her body sweated warm and wild within the tight supersuit. Her head gently dropped back till she was facing the skies far above, as more and more high-pitched moans launched from her open lips. She had already been far lost under the mercy of this Lia stranger, and didn't want to turn back, even if she could.
As soon as Avril had finally come, Lia bit down on the mortal girl's right shoulder, slurping up a mouthful of warm sweet blood from within. Still in an orgasmic daze, Avril could do very little to nothing beyond letting out a cringing squirm. Her heart and mind spun dizzy and weak, and her banded arms grew much heavier. Lia released her fangs once her thirst had been quenched for the time-being, and licked up the remaining stain. She looked upon the paled Avril within her arms, loose and mimsy yet still managing to stand on two feet at least.
With one of her sharp fingernails, Lia slit her own wrist until blood leaked free, and let at least a few droplets fall and splatter down Avril's lips and mouth. From the very moment such tainted essence dripped down her lips and mouth, a change was about to occur. Avril's eyes briefly flashed open upon feeling a deep chill shoot up her spine before shutting tight again. Her fingers twitched and tingled before they all closed into hard fists, while bloody teardrops leaked from the ducts in her eyes.
Before long, the change had reached its course, no heartbeat could be heard and no warmth could be felt, only cold silence. Dark veins had become prominent across Avril's skin and face, her canine teeth had instantly grown into elongated fangs, and her sweet blue eyes had now become irises of piercing yellow and sclera of black.
Stroking Avril's paled cheeks, Lia kissed her deeply once more, indulging in the complete submission.
"Welcome to my many, Avril Kincaid", Lia spoke.
Elsewhere, Bullseye continued on his own search, for what he had been told and believed to be a coffin of sorts, with the contents not of a corpse, but of most precious golds. His boots plodded on hard stone and smooshed on damp mud, the sounds bounced and echoed off everywhere. He whipped out a torch from his utility belt, switching it on and viewing all over the scenery as he trekked on by. Bullseye watched and observed as the enclosing flat walls all around started to change into vaster caverns, venturing further and deeper onward and downward.
Soon enough before long, he could see a hint of light around a corner up ahead. Bullseye grinned as he started to pick up a pace or two on the way forwards, his footsteps echoing even louder. But as he got closer, the light wouldn't be the only thing becoming more discernible as he began picking up some certain sounds around that same corner. Sounds of gasping and moaning rang off as the mercenary stepped more and more closely. Then, as soon as he peaked around the corner, he could see the source of such sounds.
Against the wall, a dark-skinned youthful black-haired woman in a suit of black and rose-red armour, burying her face or rather her mouth into the bleeding neck of another woman much more familiar to Bullseye. Slightly taller but equally youthful, this other woman wore a similar suit of white and silver to match her long silvery hair. Her lavender-blue eyes widened from shock before drooping shut again while her croaking lips hung open. She clutched tightly to the one who had bit into her, as the noirette force-fed her some of her own blood in return.
"Sable?" Bullseye recognised the silver-haired woman.
The noirette quickly turned her head and instantly caught Bullseye with eyes of black and red, scowling as darkened veins on her face tensed up. She released Silver Sable and pounced for Bullseye just before he stepped aside from attack. He dodged every swinging arm and gnashing teeth, even attempted to punch and kick back at the vampiric woman. Whipping out a few blades around the knuckles of his fingers, Bullseye fought and slashed back at the vampire, who dodged just as much as he did.
But soon Bullseye found himself pushed back and down against the very same wall right next to the seemingly dying Silver Sable.
"Looks like I'm gonna be the main course", Bullseye muttered as the black-haired vampire got back up to her feet and slowly approached him again.
Just then, Silver Sable's eyes flashed open to reveal black sclera with reddish-yellow irises as dark tears ran down from them. She gasped as fangs appeared and stuck out from behind her dry lips. Her chest rose forth and fell back while the rest of her body shook and stiffened. Her hands clawed into the ground beneath, and her own blood, once warm, had become mercilessly cold and even feeling as if empty inside.
"Feel... cold..." The turned Sable wheezed, her voice weak and hollow. "Need... warm... blood..." She then howled and lashed for Bullseye, who swiftly rolled away from another sudden attack.
"Oh hamburgers!" Bullseye yelped as he hastily got back up onto his feet and made a break for it, huffing heavily, not even glancing behind.
He kept running on down and deeper into the caverns as the corrupted Silver Sable and Amy Chen soon followed just as fast like predators pursuing and hunting down their prey. For the moment, treasure-hunting was now a secondary side-thing, survival had become the top, first, and utmost priority for Bullseye.
However, Bullseye wouldn't be the only one venturing underground in pursuit of rumoured riches within deep catacombs. Walking and sneaking steadily along the dimly-lit urban chambers was a young woman of dark complexion, with an afro-mohican, and wearing a grey high-collar jacket, black T-shirt, white military-style scarf, blue thick gloves, and light-blue denim jeans.
The soft breezes of the congested air barely swayed this individual, nor the series of dim lights nor faint clattering of steel in the dark distance. Huffed up on breath, the woman looked both ways before carrying on her way. However, something or someone else would catch her eyes' attention, slowing her down to a halt in her tracks. There, standing between shadows on the walls, was a tall, pale, slightly-older woman with eyes of blue, hair of white, and in a dress of red, black, and gold.
"Venturing off somewhere, I see?" The pale woman spoke with a coquettish stare.
"You could say that", the dark-skinned woman replied, glancing at this other individual and how she was dressed. "You seemed dressed for a special occasion. You lost somehow?"
"Sometimes it feels good to be lost", the white-haired woman said back, taking a first step or two forth. "It makes the soul feel small and the world seem much bigger".
"If you wanna put it like that..." The dark-skinned girl stood her ground firmly enough.
"I like that kind of woman such as you", the pale woman grinned. "Strong, bold, adventurous, and attractively hot".
"Thanks, I guess", The dark-skinned woman shrugged before introducing herself proper. "I'm Nyla, by the way, Nyla Skin. And you?"
"Alli, Alli Marc", the pale, white-haired woman greeted in return as well, continually approaching Nyla.
"So what are you really down here for anyway?" Nyla questioned.
"Oh, just waiting", Alli vaguely answered.
"Waiting for what?"
"You mean, waiting for who".
"So waiting for who then?"
"Someone as lonely and beautiful as you", Alli closed in, several inches away from Nyla.
"Lonely like me?" Nyla stood flat against a wall, her brow cocked with doubt.
"Unless your heart already belongs to somebody else", Alli added. "Does it?" Her cold yet alluring eyes gazed deeply through Nyla.
Nyla mentally struggled to resist the hypnotic glare of this temptress, but she deny a particularly personal truth of hers, her heart was yet to be taken, and she herself was yet to take someone else's heart as well. Unable to break away from eye contact, Nyla could feel her own eyelids fluttering and growing heavy as well as her muscles loosening down. Once their bodies had closed distance, Alli raised her chilled hands to gracefully hold and carefully stroke Nyla's warm cheeks and neck while their faces continued closing the space between them as well.
"It doesn't, not yet". The last thing Nyla would say before drifting deep into a sensual trance.
Before any further long, quivered lips had finally been sealed into a kiss. Quietly humming and sucking up air through nostrils, the two women closed their eyes and pressed their bodies together, warmth and cold melding into each other as one. Alli's tongue silently praised Nyla's mouth while her hands silently praised Nyla's curved body. Nyla in turn rested her gloved hands around Alli's hips, the contrasting fabric materials complementing each other. Alli felt her victim's blood heating up, before glazing her tongue all about the younger woman's neck. Nyla could feel something aching deep within herself, waiting to come free.
Sensing this so clearly, Alli unclamped Nyla's belt, unzipped her jeans, and snuck in her right hand. Already sensing a warm sticky wetness within, Alli's lustful hand slipped in not one, not two, but three fingers right in between the greasy folds. In reaction, Nyla flinched and let out an airy grunt, a surge of euphoria firing up her spine. Holding Nyla closely to her, Alli slowly pumped her fingers out and back within, repetitively and rhythmically.
"Yeah, come for me", Alli exhaled closely into Nyla's ear. "You know you want to..."
And in truth, Nyla knew deep down she had been wanting something like this so badly, her desires already rising high and fast to the surface. As Alli's dagger-like fingers sped up their rhythm, Nya's grip grew tighter, her body trembled harder, and even her sex clenched even tighter as well. Every groan she made drained more of her breath, her voice nearly breaking down even. Her body and neck arched back far to the point of aching and straining.
Before long, Nyla released her juices under Alli's power, spilling into her hand and trailing down her trousers, as Alli's smile grew wide upon this ejaculation. Gradually, Alli slowed down her fingers until they reached a halt before reliving free and allowing her to suckle down her coated fingers and lick all around her coated palm and knuckles. Once her hand was all cleaned on, Alli focused back complete on her blissful victim, specifically that dark neck, as she could sniff the warmth beneath that skin.
Purring silently and closely to the skin, Alli sunk her teeth into Nyla's neck, causing her to cringe and squeeze her gloved hands into tightly-closed fists while Alli slurped and guzzled on the bleeding liquid. Nyla was already barely hanging by a lonely thread, brinking off the mortal coil, even when Alli soon pulled back her fangs once she had her fill for the day, or rather night.
Cutting open her own palm, Alli dripped a few bits of her own blood over Nyla's mouth. As they made their way by those lips and down her dried tongue and throat, this chilling sensation spread throughout the mortal woman's body. Such icy chills darted rapidly up and down her spine while her heart trembled relentlessly. Her mouth choked and her body convulsed as red tears leaked down her face while dark energy surged up her veins, changing her from the inside in subtle ways.
Soon, the turning had been completed. Nyla's eyes flashed open to now reveal red irises against black sclera while her lips unveiled clean sharp canine teeth, sharper than usually before. Alli observed with an unsurprised and satisfied look, stroking her newest victim with gentle fingertips.
"You are one with me now", Alli spoke darkly. "And my many". She gave Nyla another brief kiss before taking her hand and bringing her in to the darkness.
To be continued...