Sam stepped out of the taxi, and looked to the bewildering night sky. Billions of stars stretched out before her, filling the otherwise blacken void. Sometimes she wished she could just fly away; get away from all the trouble in the world, leaving all the messes behind.
But then who would stop all the world’s troubles if not her?
She stepped up to a small sign, and gazed out across the city from her viewpoint. Somehow though, she found comfort in all the things the world had to offer. The simple beauties that she passed every day, taking them all for granted. The lights of the city dazzled her, bringing hope to her in a dark time.
Joseph had given his life for the mission. He gave his life to try and make the world a better place for everyone. His family left him, and he still carried on selflessly. No one would ever know about him, but he kept doing the right thing to the very end. This gave Sam hope; this gave her a meaning in life. She too, would keep on to the very end.
Sam quickly turned as she heard a car pull up behind her. Out of the black luxury car stepped a familiar face. A man with a white suit and shoes to match. He adjusted his eye patch over his left eye and smiled at Sam. “Nice to see you again, love.”
A large smile crept across Sam’s face as she stepped forward, and hugged the man. She held him tight, as if holding him would take her pain away. Mr. Bartlett embraced her as well.
He looked down at her. “Sorry about Agent Flaurence. He was a good man, hell of an agent if I’ve ever seen one.”
Sam took a step back and looked at Bartlett in his good eye. “Don’t try to cheer me up. Sadness can wait. Now, I want revenge.”
Mr. Bartlett smiled a devilish grin, “Glad to hear it, love.” His voice seemed to carry a heavy energy with it. Dark thoughts of death pushed their way into Sam’s mind. She tried to force such thoughts out, but they comforted her. She could only imagine taking the fight to the vampires, and killing them all.
Mr. Bartlett pulled his wrist up to check the time. “I have an informant meeting us here. He said he could provide us information on everything that has been going on.”
Sam crossed her arms. “What’s the info for?”
Mr. Bartlett pulled up his cane and stepped up to the viewpoint, “We can’t go rushing into a vampire lair without some sort of knowledge of what’s going on. And we don’t even know where the vampires are hiding.” He looked out across the city, “They could be anywhere for all we know.”
Sam joined the man gazing out on the city. “How reliable is this guy anyway?”
The sound of an old engine putting up the hill filled the air.
Mr. Bartlett turned to Sam. “You’ll soon find out for yourself.”
A large red hippie van came into view, and parked next to Bartlett’s car. He cringed as the door shot open, nearly hitting his luxury vehicle, and a shaggy haired man popped his head out of the doorway, a goofy smile spread across his face. He flicked something small and white off into the night, and stepped out of the van. “Sam! What’s grooving pretty lady?”
Sam put her hand on her face, and shook her head, “Kregg! What are you doing here?”
Kregg walked up to Sam to hug her. Sam held out her arms, but quickly turned away as he got close. She covered her nose and coughed a bit, pushing him away.
He shrugged. “Sorry, been on the road for quite a while.”
Kregg held out his hand for Mr. Bartlett. “Hey B, what’s shaking? Been some time since we last met. And was that a meeting.” He started laughing, glancing back and forth between Sam and Mr. Bartlett. When he realized no one was laughing, he slowly shut up, and straightened his posture.
Mr. Bartlett’s face crunched together in disgust. He pulled out a handkerchief, and covered his hand before shaking Kregg’s. “Yes, too soon if you ask me.”
Kregg chuckled to himself, and then took a deep breath of air. “Air’s clean here man.” Kregg took a step back, and leaned on his van. “So, what do you wanna know? I doubt you called me here to chit chat, no matter how charming I am.”
Sam looked at Bartlett and back to Kregg. She got straight down to business. “What do you know about a little girl? Should have happened quite recently. Maybe it had to do with the falling object a few weeks ago.”
Kregg’s eyes squinted as he rubbed the scruffy hair on his chin. “Little girl huh? Nothings coming to mind there, anything else you can tell me?”
Sam hesitated for a bit, she hadn’t told anyone what happened at the docks, but she could make an exception for the girl now that she was taken by the vamps. “When we picked her up, we got surrounded by mutants. She lifted her hand, and a bright light came out, incinerating them all to a crisp.” Mr. Bartlett nodded as she told the information he found out a few days ago.
“Hmm, very interesting,” Kregg turned, and moved to the side of his van.
“What’s interesting?” Sam followed him around the van to his side door.
Kregg swung the door open and climbed inside. “Not very many reports of light blasts.”
Mr. Bartlett stepped up to Sam’s side, and peered into the van with her. “I’m at a loss of words.” He whispered to Sam.
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Sam nodded in agreement as they looked at a van full of filling cabinets, and folders stuffed to the brim with papers. Kregg was climbing the mountain of papers searching for something. Rifling through every box and crate he got his hands on.
Sam stuck her head inside. “I think you have a hoarding problem here, Kregg.” She could smell some sort of musky smoke inside the van.
He turned to her, and smiled. “Good one. But no, this is all the information I have gathered on pretty much everything under the sun, here on Earth,” he paused for a second, “and off.”
Mr. Bartlett shifted his weight to one leg, leaning on his cane. “You could always use a computer you know. It’d save you a lot of space.”
Kregg scoffed a he rummaged through a file cabinet, “I don’t trust computers, man, they are too easily broken into. Anyone, anywhere, can just steal what I got with this internet thing everyone’s been talking about.”
Mr. Bartlett shook his head. “Couldn’t anyone just steal you van?”
The shaggy haired man stopped what he was doing, and slowly turned to Mr. Bartlett. He shot his arm out towards him, and a small cylinder with a red button atop it flew out of his sleeve into his hand. “Anyone tries, and I blow this van into a million pieces. There’s too much information in here to fall into the wrong hands. It would be devastating to everyone on this planet.” He lifted his arm up and the remote fell back down his sleeve. “Heck, I even have stuff about you in here, B.” Kregg turned back to his cabinet and continued to rifle through it.
Mr. Bartlett turned stiff and raised an eyebrow. He turned to Sam, who just smiled and shrugged.
“Here we are!” Kregg pulled out a file folder, and kissed it. He jumped out of the van, “The Sun people.” He held the folder out for Sam.
“Sun people?” She took the folder, and opened it, flipping through the pages and pictures.
“Yeah, or the Star People, as some call them. Most people contribute the humans’ technological advances to them. It is said that they were the first aliens to come to the planet, way back to the first civilizations of Earth. Agriculture, construction, medicine, they help us out with it all.”
Mr. Bartlett walked behind Sam, and looked over her shoulder at the file. “That would make sense, all this started happening around the same time as the ship fell from the sky.”
Kregg’s eyebrows shot up, “The ship crash a few weeks ago? There was a huge uproar about it all around. Alien tech is coveted by everything on Earth, so it wasn’t surprising the Institute picked it up as fast as they could.”
Sam looked up from the file, “But what would the vamps want with her? She didn’t have anything on her at all. There was nothing in the warehouse where we found her, either.”
Kregg rubbed his chin again. “Well, the Sun People aren’t much different from us. As you said, they have the ability to emit great light and heat, just like a sun. They also have the unlimited potential of energy stored in their bodies. I believe that they are able to power their ships with this. It’s probably why they are so advanced. Besides that, were pretty much one in the same.” Kregg leaned forward and scratched his head. “For the vamps though. I’m not sure what they’d want with an alien. Creatures of the night, with an alien of the light, doesn’t make much sense to me.”
Mr. Bartlett spoke up. “The mutants also wanted her, and they trashed my restaurant to get her. They can’t possibly be working together. The vampires are too proud to lower themselves to the mutants’ level.”
“That one’s easy.” Kregg stretched his arms upwards, and let out a deep breath. “There’s a new player in the under cities. Some hot shot mutant they call the ‘Prophet’. He was the first natural born mutant in the under cites, kind of like a Jesus of the mutants, anyway, they think he will lead them to the surface to rule the world, control the light, and all that jazz. He probably thinks that the girl has some sort of power he can obtain.”
Mr. Bartlett nodded. “Which is why they want the girl. He probably thinks she’ll help them out in some miraculous way.”
Kregg nodded. “They’re always looking for some way to rule the surface, no matter how much of a long shot it is. All of the recent mutant activity is because of this Prophet guy.”
Sam shut the folder and handed it to Kregg. “This is all great, but it still doesn’t help us find Starr. We have no clue where this vampire lair is.”
“I can help you with that.” A familiar voice came from behind the van.
The trio looked at the back of the van. A skinny man fidgeting with his bandage wrapped fingers was standing there alone.
“Red?” Sam ran forward and hugged the man. He leaned back, not expecting such a friendly reaction.
Sam stepped back, and punched him in the shoulder. “Where’d you go? Where’s Andrelle? I’ve been freaking out about you guys.”
Red rubbed his arm, “The vampire from the warehouse was in the garage. Andrelle and I stayed so Joseph could get away. But.” Red stood still for a second, frozen in place. How could he tell them of his cowardice and still face them.
“What?” Sam put her hand on his shoulder, awakening him from his dream. Her touch was reassuring to the psychic.
“I froze up. I was too scared to do anything. They took her back to their hideout. I was able to follow them and I can easily take you there.” Red looked around, “Where’s Joseph and Starr, shouldn’t they be back by now?”
Sam looked away and walked back to the front of the van. It was still heart wrenching when she heard his name. She could only picture him lying in his own blood on that bathroom floor.
“Joseph has been killed in action.” Mr. Bartlett filled in for Sam, “Starr has been taken by the vampires. It’s been a mess all around it seems.”
Sam turned to Red quickly. “But you know where the vamps are?” Red nodded. “Then all we need now is a plan.”
Mr. Bartlett turned to Sam. “We also need some man power. We can’t just go guns blazing with only the four of us.”
“Whoa, whoa, whoa.” Kregg stepped forward holding his hands up. “I’m a lover, not a fighter. Peace, love, and all that crap. I can’t get my head in a firefight with the vamps, it would ruin my reputation.”
Mr. Bartlett shook his head and sighed.
Sam folded her arms. “What about the men from the restaurant? They could be some major help right now.”
Mr. Bartlett shook his head, “I sent most of them on leave while the restaurant is being rebuilt, and Scott and Tentin are both in the hospital. Whoever’s left is guarding the leftovers of my restaurant. I have no one to spare.”
Sam’s head and arms dropped towards the floor and everyone was silent for a moment. Sam’s head then shot back up. “I think I have someone who can help. He’s tech savvy and you already know him, Bartlett. He can figure out a way to help us out.”
Mr. Bartlett’s face looked confused for a second until he realized who she was talking about. “And I have someone who has a debt to repay to me, or at least he will soon enough. You should know him as well.”
“It’s settled then.” Sam stepped in the middle of everyone, “We get the backup, we crush the vampire menace, and we save the world.”
Mr. Bartlett scoffed. “Saving the world might be a little overboard there.”
Red started to chuckle, but soon stopped as Sam held her fist out at him. She had a renewed hope, and was ready to save Starr.
“Glad to be of service to you cool cats, but it is now my time to get far from here.” Kregg walked to the driver side of his van, and opened the door. “If you need any information at all in the future, you know who to call.” He stepped into his van, and shut the door, promptly sticking something in his mouth and lighting it.
Sam laughed to herself, and turned to Mr. Bartlett. “So who’s this guy who’s going to owe us a favor?”