CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED FIFTY-EIGHT

The Trick to Catching Vampires, Part 1

“Honestly, that line is starting to get old,” commented the man in the rabbit-eared mask wrapped around his head. “I hear it every time we make a late entrance now.”

The British hero in the tan skintight spandex suit with white gloves and boots to match was the first to step into the flickering spotlight of the warehouse’s lamps.

“Only because New York’s newest alpha says it far too often,” replied the pale-skinned, pixie-haired teenager girl.

New York’s only active seer stepped into view decked in her padded red vest, black tights, and combat boots. Her custom short bow was already in her right hand too.

“Someone needs new material,” she teased.

“That someone being New York’s newest alpha, you mean?” Jackboot asked in a teasing tone.

“Yup. New York’s newest alpha.” The seer with the smoky eyeshadow around her almond-shaped amber eyes winked at Sam. “Nice suit. It’s got a cool warrior vibe to it.”

“It does have a certain alpha quality to it, doesn’t it?” commented the dark-skinned muscle man with a buzz-cut and all-black costume who was the third to walk into the warehouse from the hole this group of heroes made in the rear wall.

“You guys realize Thunder was the one who said that line, right?” Sam complained.

“They know better than to turn their barbs on me,” Thunder replied.

“That we do,” Jackboot chuckled. “Besides, it’s not every day you get to poke fun at New York’s newest alpha.”

Sam sighed. “Yeah, yeah, I missed you guys too.”

They’d only been separated for a few days, but Sam was glad to see his friends again. Especially now with an alpha-level villain like Bloodfyre about to rain hellfire down on them all.

He and Jackboot exchanged high-fives that transitioned into a Spartan arm shake to an Egyptian cobra finger clutch and then the classic Norse fist bump which ended in a pair of explosions.

“Are you guys really this chummy?” asked the blue-haired heroine in the blue jumpsuit who came in next.

“Herculean has this way of bringing out the weirdness in people,” Farsight commented.

A baseball-sized recorder bot floated into the warehouse to get close-ups of Sam and Thunder. Ice Brand came in after it with the hero’s face glued to his smartphone’s screen.

“Skadi’s frigid bones, my viewers are loving the friendly banter. The comments about your new suits are blowing up too,” he reported happily.

Ice Brand’s recorder bot zoomed in on Thunder’s bodice a little too closely, making Thunder slap it away out of reflex.

“Sorry about that,” Ice Brand called.

Sam wasn’t sure if Ice Brand was apologizing to Thunder or his fans. Probably both.

His brow creased as another thought struck him. Since the recorder bot was now zooming in on a close-up shot of Sam’s face, he wondered aloud if this might count as his official debut as New York’s number one hero.

“You couldn’t ask for a more worthy villain for a debut…” Thunder pointed up at the alarming number of bloody red branches spreading out above them. “Blessed Athena, it’s like staring up at a canopy of trees in a dense forest…”

“Wonder why she hasn’t attacked us yet,” Sam said.

“Probably because she’s building up to something,” Thunder guessed.

“Your new friends seem to lack a sense of urgency, Crow-Man,” said a soft yet husky voice Sam had never heard before.

The new arrival wore a dark purple bodysuit and utility belt similar to Crow-Man’s black suit. She didn’t have a cape though. Instead, a long skirt of feathers spread out from her waist to end just around her ankles. She didn’t have a cowl on either, but the mask she wore over the upper half of her face was fashioned in the shape of a purple bird with feathered edges that spread past her ears.

“Holy Zeus, it’s Raven Knight,” Sam whispered, to which Thunder replied, “You’re such a fanboy.”

It was more than just simple fandom for Sam though. He and Raven Knight had shared an assessment day about a year and a half ago. And, while Sam failed to rise above the standards of mediocrity, Raven Knight, who was Crow-Man’s sidekick at the time, possessed a gift heavy enough to weigh equally with three white feathers of truth on the scales of justice. She was promoted to beta rank and went on to do amazing things in her rookie year that Sam could only dream of at the time. He watched her success and cheered her on as he did with Thunder, but he was also envious of Raven Knight. Envious that the gods had given someone who’d started at the same time as him such fortunate gifts while they saddled Sam with misery upon misery.

He also found it strange that Raven Knight was entering the warehouse—as well as his life—now of all times. When he’d finally reached a stage where he could compete with her again.

“They’re not my friends. We’re just colleagues,” Crow-Man growled, drawing Sam’s attention away from Raven Knight.

The moment the veteran hero walked into the warehouse, all banter and fooling around ceased as if he were a drill sergeant inspecting a line of soldiers standing at attention.

“What’re you standing idly around for?” he growled at everyone. “She’s coming. Focus!”

No sooner had Crow-Man barked his order when several bloody branches surged down at the heroes like wooden spikes seeking to impale them all at once.

Sam thought it was a good thing Ice Brand was around after he watched the fluffy-haired hero snap his fingers and lower the air temperature enough to freeze the limbs of several branches before they could reach the heroes’ heads. The few branches that got past Ice Brand’s wide-area ‘Binding Ice’ spell were easily repelled by Bulwark’s new feature; a teal-tinted barrier that wrapped around the gathered heroes like a dome.

“You’re becoming more imaginative with using your gifts,” Crow-Man grunted in approval.

“I got the idea for this after being inside Bethany’s barrier.” Sam, who kept his arms up while he pumped his life force through his fingers, blushed at Crow-Man’s praise. “I can’t hold it long though. Are you guys ready?”

“Is one ever truly ready to take on a murderous, blood-sucking vampire?” Jackboot asked.

He was already hopping in place, which Sam knew was his friend’s way of revving up his engine.

“Probably not.” Veins of fire were beginning to rise on the skin of both of Dr. Hearthstone’s arms. “But we do it anyway, because—”

“That’s what heroes do!” Ice Brand finished for him.

Incidentally, as he said this uplifting remark, Ice Brand’s gaze wasn’t at all focused on the red canopy above them, but on his recorder bot.

Miracle Girl slapped him on the back with a hand glowing with bits of starlight. “Focus, Jin-Oppa.”

“As I said”—Raven Knight unsheathed the rapier strapped to her side and twirled it forward—“you people have no sense of urgency.”

“Welcome to the club, RK.” Farsight notched an arrow to her bow, an arrow that was strangely shimmering in and out of phase with reality. “You’ll get used to the banter eventually.”

“Focus.” Crow-Man pulled out a feather-shaped dagger for each of his hands. “Drop your barrier in three, Herculean.”

At Crow-Man’s request, Sam waited three seconds, and then he let Bulwark’s aura dissipate which became the signal for the nine-man raid against Bloodfyre to begin.

Thick spiky branches of blood smashed into the cement floor but the heroes had already dispersed in every direction with many of them climbing up these very same branches to get to the white-haired woman in the red robe who had finally revealed herself to everyone.

From his new spot underneath a steel shelf opposite the one Bloodfyre’s ‘Blood Tree’ grew out of, Sam watched Crow-Man bob, weave, and jump out of the way of incoming branches while also managing to fire his two throwing knives into the air. Sam didn’t think they would reach Bloodfyre though as there were so many branches in the way—but he was wrong.

Crow-Man had thrown his knives so they’d rotate like pinwheels, allowing them to bounce off branches and steel poles like billiard balls ricocheting off corners. Amazingly, each rebound brought them closer and closer to Bloodfyre’s spot near the ceiling with one of them managing to reach within hitting distance of her.

Bloodfyre plucked the feather-shaped knife out of the air before it could hurt her, however, while the other knife pierced into the branch beneath her feet.

“Crow-Man~~n,” she called in that husky voice of hers. “I was wondering when we’d cross paths a—”

The feather-shaped knife in her hand let out a high-pitched screech that hurt the villainess’s ears, causing her to stumble on her branch. Meanwhile, the second feather-shaped knife—the one lodged in the branch she was standing on—exploded, creating a tremor over the thick branch that forced the stumbling Bloodfyre to lose her footing completely and fall off what remained of her bloody branch.

“A sonic knife and an explosive one?” Sam’s eyes widened in admiration. “What a cool combo.”

“Yeah, yeah, trick knives are cool,” Farsight said as she aimed her bow at the falling vampire. “But trick arrows are always cooler. Watch this.”

Farsight let her arrow loose—and it flew upward, through the tiniest gaps between wriggling branches, past falling blood drops and debris made from Crow-Man’s explosive knife, to within inches of Bloodfyre’s chest just as she landed like a cat on another thick red branch as if Farsight predicted where the vampire would end up at that exact moment.

Bloodfyre wasn’t about to be pierced in her heart though, which Sam assumed was lethal to vampires. As she’d done with Crow-Man’s knife, the villainess moved her hand inhumanly fast and plucked the arrow out of the air before it could strike her. But all she managed to grasp was a big helping of air because Farsight’s arrow had just winked out of existence.

“What in Hades…” Sam’s eyebrow hitched up just before his eyes widened in surprise. “Hephaestus’ flaming beard!”

The arrow that had disappeared rematerialized in a different location. It pierced into the right side of Bloodfyre’s neck, forcing the villainess to choke on whatever threat or complaint was about to spill from her crimson lips.

“Did you just infect an arrow with probability?” Sam asked.

Farsight nodded giddily. “Won’t know exactly where it’ll hit because there are thousands of probabilities to sift through, but I’m pretty sure my new ‘Probability Shot’ will hit whatever I shoot at.”

“That’s…” Sam began, to which Thunder, who’d just arrived at their hiding spot, finished with, “…ridiculously overpowered.”

“Welp, seeing you two get stronger over and over again kind of made me want to experiment with my gift too,” Farsight admitted, although she looked like she immediately regretted saying it. “Don’t let it get to your heads or anything. I just thought it would be cool to make new moves.”

“Right~~t,” Sam was grinning from ear to ear, “I’ll pretend you didn’t just say that you idolize us.”

Farsight sent Sam an icy glare that would have made his chuckle die in his throat if he wasn’t goaded on by the memory of the roasting that she and the others had given him earlier.

A blood-curdling screech erupted from above, and they all watched as Bloodfyre pulled the arrow out of her neck, causing blood to spray out of the already closing wound to flow into her hand and reform into her ‘Blood Sword’.

“All you’re doing is making me hungrier…” Her crimson-eyed glare snapped from Crow-Man to Farsight and then finally honed in on Sam. “You still owe me a taste, Samuel Shepard.”

“Um, Sam,” Thunder glanced over at Sam with her brow creasing behind her golden locks, “did she just say your name out loud?”